Care chief opposes mandatory Covid vaccine as home care 'did not have same losses as care homes'

A home care chief has said she is opposed to the mandatory Covid vaccine for the domiciliary workforce in England as it is all about “balancing the risk” and says “if you look at the amount of people who died in home care from Covid as a result of home care compared to care homes, it is so small in comparison".

The government carried out a public consultation on the issue which ended on 22 October. It has now announced that mandatory vaccination will be introduced for the home care workforce as well as all NHS staff in April 2022.

Those who do not have face to face contact with patients and those who cannot have the vaccine for medical reasons will be exempt.

Camille Leavold’s stance is being backed by the Homecare Association which has warned the policy could lead to a quarter of home care workers leaving the sector. Its chief executive Jane Townson criticised the government for its “bullying approach to its health and care workforce”.

In the podcast Let’s Talk About Care, Camille Leavold, director of Abbots Care, which supports more than 1,000 people living in their own homes and employs 500 home care workers, talks about her concerns over the policy saying: “I think it is really difficult as I do believe the workforce should want to be vaccinated. I do think it is our duty of care when we are supporting such vulnerable people. However I think there is another way of doing it and I don’t think for my service especially you don’t need to make it mandatory.”

In the podcast, she talks about how home care workers “constantly” put themselves at risk during the pandemic and says: “Some of our care workers ended up in hospital. I don’t think it is right after everything they did to say you have to have the vaccine regardless.”

“If it hadn’t been for our workforce, the hospitals would have seized up and no one mentions that.”

Abbots Care has managed to get 96 per cent of its workforce vaccinated. It was a carefully managed process and Ms Leavold says: “We looked at meeting every single care worker that had reservations.

“Talking, talking, talking and supporting, we got 96 per cent of our workforce vaccinated. I think that is good enough. The four per cent have quite good reasons for not having it.

'We did not have the same losses that the NHS and care homes had'

“I do think we should have our workforce vaccinated but I don’t think mandatory vaccination is the right way to go about it. We did not have the same losses that the NHS and the care homes had.”

The care sector is already struggling to recruit staff and Ms Leavold is worried that mandatory vaccination will exacerbate an already bad situation. “I think it might detract people from coming into care. I think more of the problem is it is going to restrict our recruitment pipeline even more.”

She believes “it is a question of balancing the risk” and with non-vaccinated workers expected to do a daily lateral flow test and a weekly PCR test, she feels she already has very stringent measures in place.

Ms Leavold co-founded the home care company with her mother and sister in 1995.

Fuelled by “bags of enthusiasm” she says “we naively felt we could do this” and even before it became a thing, the company has always “had a person-centred approach”.

She has encountered many challenges along the way but says staffing is still the biggest challenge of all.

“In the pandemic we were getting such good quality people in. We were getting people from hospitality, from retail and they are usually on the same page as us.

“It kind of overlapped with Brexit so we didn’t feel the impact of Brexit.

“But when lockdown measures were lifted and we started to get back on our feet we lost a lot of these staff. A lot went back to hospitality and to retail because they were offering amazing terms.

“We have a core of staff from Europe that we keep hold of as we house them and give them cars but we can’t bring any more in now and these are our senior care workers.”

Brexit has shut the door on the EU workforce and after some campaigning senior care workers are now on the Home Office approved list for visas. However “we would like to see the same access as the NHS has to bring people in. But we need to bring in care workers not just senior care workers. We have to have a solution,” says Ms Leavold.

Earlier this year, Camille Leavold was the first recipient of the government’s new Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care award, for her ‘inspiring’ leadership efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She reveals: “It was a complete surprise.

“I was absolutely delighted. Not just because it was the first gold award that was given. It was recognition for social care. Firstly they recognised social care and secondly they recognised home care.”

It has been a busy couple of years for Abbots Care in terms of accolades with 2020 being the year it got rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission. “We consistently try and improve. We never sit on our laurels.”

'Employ the best people you can'

Her top tip is to “employ the best people you can. It is really about the workforce.”

Dealing with levels of anxiety for the staff and the service users was one of the hardest things during the pandemic, according to Ms Leavold.

“The anxiety and the worry was really high. We started developing a wellbeing app during that time and tested it out during Covid.

“It is three smiley faces – if they put a sad face one of our team will call them as soon as they see on the app.” Employees can then get support or recognition with vouchers.

“Recognition is one of the biggest things for retention. If you don’t say thank you at the right time. If care workers think you don’t care they don’t want to work for your service.

“During the pandemic our workforce were absolutely delighted that people were clapping for them.

“What we need to be able to do is pay our care workers a really good salary and offer them really good progression.

Care work is not 'just a bit of tea and toast'

“It is something I am constantly banging the drum on. Sometimes our care workers go in and their voices croak as they haven’t spoken to someone for 24 hours. The only person they see all day will be our care workers.

“It is such a skilled job. People just do not understand. They think it is just a bit of tea and toast. But it is so much more than that.”

To listen to the full podcast with Camille Leavold click here

click here for more details or to contact Abbots Care Ltd