Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact to date of covid-19 vaccination as a condition of employment within the social care sector.

The Government’s impact assessment for vaccination as a condition of deployment in care homes estimated that around 37,000 additional staff might leave the care home workforce. Between 20 July and 29 December 2021, the care home workforce decreased by 19,300, although this will also include the effect of new staff joining the sector over the same time period and staff leaving for other reasons.

The extension of vaccination as a condition of deployment to wider social care will apply from April 2022. The impact assessment extending the policy across health and social care estimates that 35,000 staff in domiciliary care and other care services may not have met vaccination requirements by the end of grace period on 31 March 2022. We will continue to monitor the impact of the policy in the lead up to the regulations coming into force.