Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to support care homes that risk losing losing staff due to the proposed mandatory covid-19 vaccination guidelines.

We have ensured social care workers are prioritised for COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. In addition to repeat care home visits by vaccination teams, we have introduced priority access at vaccination centres for social care workers and unpaid carers which is available now at walk-in sites. The regulations on vaccination requirements in care homes included a 16-week grace period to provide time for staff to be vaccinated and also for care homes to manage staff transition, if necessary. We also made guidance available through partners to support local authorities with capacity and workforce planning.

We have put in place a range of measures to support local authorities and care providers address workforce capacity pressures. On 10 December 2021 we announced £300 million to support local authorities and care providers to recruit and retain staff through winter. This is in addition to the existing £162.5 million Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund. We have also launched a new phase of our national recruitment campaign which will run until March 2022.