LATEST UPDATE on VCOD for Care Homes - Does VCOD still apply for care homes? | QCS

LATEST UPDATE on VCOD for Care Homes – Does VCOD still apply for care homes?

Dementia Care
February 7, 2022

With the Government recently announcing a consultation that could see the ending of vaccination as a condition of employment for many health and social care workers in England, what does this mean for people working in care homes? Chris King, Associate Solicitor at Napthens, explains.

No new legislation to withdraw care home regulations currently

Currently I think the position is unclear as, although the government has come out and announced the consultation with a view to scrapping the NHS regulations and withdrawing the care home ones, there’s no actual legislation doing that currently as far as I have seen.

As such, whilst the NHS Regulations don’t come into force until 1st April 2022 and so will have been scrapped by that time, the care home regulations are already in force and need to be withdrawn via the parliamentary process.

No guidance for care homes yet

I don’t know whether the CQC has issued guidance on whether they are suspending enforcement of the care home regulations while a decision is made to withdraw them, but I haven’t seen anything confirming this is the case. As such, all we can do is consider that they still apply until such time as they don’t.

As care homes will have already taken the necessary steps to redeploy or terminate the employment of those who are unvaccinated, it is unlikely that there is anything actively they will need to do now. The only guidance would be that, should they be contacted by any former unvaccinated staff wanting their jobs back, they engage in these discussions but confirm that no new employment for them can start until the care home regulations have been properly withdrawn.