Guidance

COVID-19 vaccination of people working or deployed in care homes: operational guidance

Anyone working or volunteering in a care home needs to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), unless they are exempt.

From:
Department of Health and Social Care
Published
4 August 2021
Last updated
1 March 2022 — See all updates

This publication was withdrawn on

Regulations revoking vaccination as a condition of deployment came into force on 15 March 2022. People working or volunteering in care homes are no longer required to have received a COVID-19 vaccine to enter the premises.

Applies to England

Documents

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination of people working or deployed in care homes: operational guidance

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Government intends to revoke the regulations making vaccines a condition of deployment for health and social care staff, and sought views on this through consultation. The government’s response to the consultation has now been published. In the light of consultation, the government is proceeding with revocation and the regulations revoking vaccination as a condition of deployment in all health and social care settings will come into force on 15 March 2022.

This guidance has been produced to help support the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 and Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations 2022.

These regulations require registered persons (service providers) at all Care Quality Commission-registered care homes (which provide accommodation together with nursing or personal care) to ensure that anyone who works or volunteers in the indoor premises of that care home in England must demonstrate that they have been vaccinated or have an exemption.

Translations will follow shortly.

The easy-read version in English of this guidance is currently being updated.

Separate guidance is available for social care settings other than care homes.

There is also guidance on the implementation of the regulations in healthcare settings published by NHS England.

Updates to this page

Published 4 August 2021
Last updated 1 March 2022 + show all updates

  1. Updated to reflect the announcement that government is proceeding with revoking vaccination as a condition of deployment in all health and social care settings.

  2. Updated to reflect the announcement that government has published a consultation seeking views on revoking regulations making vaccines a condition of deployment for health and social care staff​.

  3. Added call-out box to reflect that the government has announced its intention to revoke the regulations making vaccines a condition of deployment for health and social care staff, subject to parliamentary process.

  4. Since 11 November 2021, anyone working or volunteering in a care home has needed to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), unless exempt. These conditions were updated by regulations that came into force on 6 January 2022 and additional regulations that will come into force on 1 April 2022.

  5. In the English language version, updated the sections 'If an individual has been vaccinated outside of the UK', 'Groups that can get a medical exemption', 'How to demonstrate your vaccination status' and 'Exemptions' with more information on temporary and formal medical exemptions.

  6. Adding link to easy-read version of the guidance in English.

  7. Added translations of the guidance in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Simplified), Farsi, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Kurdish (Sorani), Nepali, Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Polish, Romanian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukranian and Urdu.

  8. Added HTML version.

  9. First published.

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