Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that directly employed personal assistants carers are aware they can access covid-19 vaccines as frontline social care staff.

The  Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.  For the first phase, the JCVI has advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.

Those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill, will be offered vaccination in priority group six in line with the JCVI’s advice.

Information on identifying and vaccinating social care workers, including those providing direct care to people who need care and support, was published on 14 January and is available at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/vaccinating-frontline-social-care-workers/