Covid: Ministers plan to scrap NHS jab requirement for England

Ministers plan to scrap a legal requirement for front-line NHS staff in England to be vaccinated against Covid, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said.

He told MPs ending the policy, which also affects social care staff, was now under consultation in light of the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The policy, announced last year, meant front-line NHS workers in England would have had to be fully vaccinated by 1 April, needing a first jab by Thursday.

This deadline is no longer applicable.

Staff had faced redeployment or dismissal, prompting protests against the policy and some NHS workers considering moves to other UK nations.

The health secretary defended the policy of initially introducing mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS and social care workers, insisting the government "makes no apology for it".

But he told MPs ministers would now launch a consultation due to "dramatic changes" in the virus since the original policy was devised last year.

He added: "Subject to the responses and the will of this house, the government will revoke the regulations.

"I have always been clear that our rules must remain proportionate and balanced, and of course, should we see another dramatic change in the virus, it would be only responsible to review this policy again."

There are no plans in Scotland and Wales to make Covid jabs mandatory for NHS workers or care home staff, while there will be a public consultation on the issue in Northern Ireland.

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Since September there has been a "net increase of 127,000" people working across the NHS who have "done the right thing and got jabbed", and a net increase of 32,000 people vaccinated in social care, Mr Javid said.

The government has been under pressure from some within the health service to scrap the mandate, arguing that it would lead to a staffing crisis.

The Royal College of Midwives - which welcomed the suspension of the policy - had warned it could have a "catastrophic impact" on maternity services, while the Royal College of GPs and Royal College of Nursing had called for the deadline to be delayed.

But the Department of Health and Social Care has previously insisted the policy was "the right thing to do to protect patients".

Support for change a formality

The government says it will push ahead with dropping the requirement for frontline NHS staff in England to be vaccinated - this will technically require consultation and a change in the law, although with Labour support it looks like a formality.

Ministers say they will do the same for social care staff in England, who from last November were legally required to be vaccinated to hold down their jobs.

There were predictions that thousands of care workers would leave.

Those who did quit are now free to reapply for their jobs.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid argued in the Commons that the landscape had changed significantly with Omicron proving less severe than Delta.

Higher vaccination take-up, he added, meant that the balance of risks had altered with the need to hold on to staff more of a priority.

There has been a welcome from some Royal Colleges who opposed the policy from the start, but a sense of irritation amongst health leaders.

In a joint statement the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, representing trusts in England, said there was frustration at the 11th-hour policy change given all the hard work on meeting the government deadline.

The groups also said there was concern at the implications for wider messaging to the public about the importance of vaccination.

It remains to be seen whether what looks like a short term fix has more worrying longer term implications.

The chief executives of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, Matthew Taylor and Chris Hopson, said NHS leaders were "frustrated" at the 11th-hour policy change as they and their teams raced to meet the 3 February deadline for first doses.

In a joint statement, they said: "They recognise the reasons the government has given for the changes, the risk to services and the different risk from Omicron compared to previous variants.

"But there would be concern at what this means for wider messaging about the importance of vaccination for the population as a whole."

The pair also said the consultation would cause similar frustration for the care home sector "given the disruption to service delivery that resulted from loss of staff last November".

Care home staff had to be double vaccinated by 11 November last year.

Home care or domiciliary staff would have had to be double vaccinated at the same time as NHS staff.

Staff shortages will have focused minds

Many working in care homes or supporting people in their own homes will be relieved at the government announcement that it now plans to scrap mandatory vaccinations in the health and care sector.

From the start, care bosses have said that persuasion, not compulsion, is the most effective way to get hesitant staff to be vaccinated.

Making vaccinations mandatory was an unnecessary headache, they argued, when the demand for care was rising and they were already losing staff exhausted by Covid and with better pay offered elsewhere.

Care homes had to sack staff unwilling to be jabbed last November, just before the intense pressures of the Omicron wave of the virus.

With a similar deadline looming for those supporting people in the own homes, some care companies, had feared they could lose 10% or more of their frontline care workers.

The government says it reviewed its policy because the population is better protected now and Omicron is less severe than previous variants, but ongoing staffing shortages will also have focused minds.

The Homecare Association - which represents providers of care in people's homes - said it was pleased there would be a consultation but urged immediate clarity, given the deadline for the first dose of the vaccine was Thursday and employers were poised to start dismissal procedures with unvaccinated staff.

In a letter to NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard asked employers not to serve notice of termination to employees affected by the regulations.

Labour backed Mr Javid's decision, with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting saying: "Clearly things have now moved on both in terms of our overall levels of infection and in terms of understanding of the latest variant."