Staff shortages: Care homes may shut as vaccine deadline for care workers is today
Care homes may be forced to shut because of staff shortages as the deadline for care workers to get vaccinated looms today, Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, warned this morning.
Green told Radio 4’s Today programme: “There’s a real crisis around recruitment in the social care sector which has, in the pandemic, gotten a lot worse. Lots of things the Government has done, including the mandatory vaccination process, hasn’t helped.”
“We are also going to see millions of pounds going out of the sector because of the national insurance contributions rising and we won’t see that extra money coming in until about 2023,” he said.
Green added: “We all accept we want as many people as possible to be vaccinated. But I do feel the Government has gone forward with the social care compulsion without understanding the implications. Without having a thought-out plan on how they are going to deal with staff shortages.”
“Care homes are now in a difficult position, facing the reality of do they have enough staff to maintain safety and quality of care?
“They are in the position of either having to transgress the law or expose people they support to levels of staffing that are not going to deliver the safety you’re required to.
“There’s the inevitability that in some areas, if you can’t get the staff, then there will be care homes that close,” Green concluded.