G15 Response to the Extension of Mandatory Vaccination Consultation

The G15, the group of London’s largest housing associations, many of which provide care services, has responded to the government’s consultation on the proposal to make vaccination a condition of deployment in the health and wider social care sector.

Throughout the pandemic, the absolute priority of the G15 has been the safety and wellbeing of our residents. It is the preference of all G15 members that all our colleagues who provide care services were vaccinated. However, the majority of our members believe that the impact of introducing further vaccination requirements as a condition of deployment could create greater risks to our residents than unvaccinated staff, due to the effect staff shortages could have on our ability to maintain critical service delivery.

The outline of our response and the broad consensus of the G15 is:

• Whilst we of course support colleagues working in care settings to be vaccinated, the impact of staffing shortages on our ability to deliver these critical services must be considered before any further extension of the mandatory vaccination requirement takes place.
  
• It is essential we understand the impact of the first mandatory vaccination requirements on our service delivery before further regulations are introduced.
  
• We stress the severity of current staff recruitment and retention issues across the social care sector.
  
• The introduction of further barriers to the deployment of care staff will negatively impact many of our member's ability to deliver critical services to our residents.
  
• Extending mandatory vaccination will have a disproportionately negative impact on our ethnic minority colleagues.

You can read our full response below.