After months of speculation, a leaked government document has revealed that the Government is thinking of making Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for frontline adult social care staff. Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, made clear that staff have a professional duty to be vaccinated, unless there is a valid medical reason not to do so. However, uptake across health and social care staff has been variable. Whilst recent central government figures indicate that approximately 96% of frontline health care workers have now had their first dose, uptake amongst social care staff has been lower: 65% on the 18th March 2021.
Ann-Marie Towers, Reader in Social Care at the University’s Centre for Health Services Studies, has commented on the ethical implications of making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for social care workers. She said:
‘Social care users, and in particular care home residents, have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19. Surely care workers have a duty of care to ensure they are doing everything they can to reduce the risk of transmission into and between social care settings and services? Mandatory vaccinations, however, raise important ethical, as well as legal questions. Currently, the workforce are perfectly within their rights to refuse the vaccination. Should it become mandatory, how will employers deal with staff who refuse based on protected characteristics, including disability, pregnancy or religious beliefs?
‘Retention within the sector is already low, with high turnover rates. Losing experienced staff and having to recruit and train new care workers is costly and time consuming and the impact on morale likely to be significant. Recent research in care homes, conducted by the University of Kent, has demonstrated a positive association between care quality and working conditions for staff. In particular, higher wages and training are associated with better quality ratings. Understanding the reasons why staff are refusing the vaccine and trying to work with them to ‘change hearts and minds’ might therefore be a better long-term solution for the sector as a whole and the people they care for. Whether there is sufficient slack in the system to do this whilst protecting the needs of social care users, however, remains to be seen.’