Latest data reveals half a million social care staff in England ‘not recorded as double jabbed’
More than half a million social care staff in England have not been recorded as having received two coronavirus vaccine doses, figures show.
Some 542,196 workers in care homes, domiciliary care and other settings have not been recorded as having received two jabs as of November 7, according to data from NHS England.
This includes 56,407 care home staff, of which 45,328 work in older adult care homes.
Of these, several thousand are understood to have self-certified as medically exempt or to have applied for formal proof.
There will be some staff whose vaccination status is unknown, while there may also be a time lag in some vaccinations being reported, NHS England said.
Overall, 90.2% of staff at older age care homes and 87.3% at younger adult care homes have had both doses.
The Government’s mandatory vaccine requirement for staff in registered care homes kicked in on Thursday.
It means that staff must have been double jabbed, or be medically exempt, to continue working in care homes.
The regulations also cover any worker, including NHS staff, tradespeople and inspectors, who needs to enter a care home as part of their employment.
But residents and their visitors, or people who need to enter the residence to provide emergency assistance or urgent maintenance, or under-18s will not need to show proof of vaccination.
According to analysis from the PA news agency, there are nearly 9,000 fewer staff in older adult care homes since the Government announced jabs would become mandatory.
NHS England figures show that there were 471,780 staff working in older age care homes as of June 20 – four days after the announcement.
Latest data up to November 7 shows there are now 462,852 – a decrease of 8,928 staff.
The fall is likely to be due to multiple reasons.
The data also shows that 113,611 staff in domiciliary care and younger adult care homes have not yet been recorded as receiving both vaccine doses – 22.7% of the total.
Three-quarters of staff working in other social care settings, including non-registered providers and those employed by local authorities, have had their first jab.
But only about a third were doubled jabbed by November 7, with 383,257 staff in these settings not doubly vaccinated or reported as so at this point.
The Government said this week that frontline NHS and social care staff working in registered settings must have had both vaccine doses by April 1 2022, unless exempt.
Separate figures published on Thursday suggest as many as one in five staff in some of the biggest NHS trusts in England are not yet fully vaccinated.
Some 20.2% of healthcare workers at Barts Health trust in London had not received both doses of vaccine as of October 31, along with 18.7% of workers at King’s College Hospital in London, and 18.2% at University Hospitals Birmingham.
Other trusts with a large minority of staff yet to have both jabs of vaccine include Sandwell & West Birmingham (19.6%), Imperial College in London (17.7%) and Guy’s & St Thomas’, also in London (16.8%).
Of the 216 trusts that reported figures, 95 trusts had more than 10% of workers not fully vaccinated, with 29 having more than 15%, according to analysis by the PA news agency.
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health trust had the highest percentage of staff that were not fully vaccinated (20.6%) while Derbyshire Community Health Services trust had the lowest (5.1%).
Overall, 11.0% of NHS trust health care workers in England – around 158,000 people – had not received both doses of vaccine as of October 31.
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