Home Care

The number of home care staff working in England has fallen by more than 17,500 since September, NHS England data reveals. Some 406,365 domiciliary care staff were working in registered care settings (other than care homes) in the week ending January 30 – that’s a loss of 17,664 staff – when compared to w/e September […]

Unvaccinated home care workers, who are not medically exempt, are required to have their first dose of a Covid vaccine by 3 February, in order to keep their jobs and comply with the government’s vaccination rules coming into force on 1 April. According to vaccine guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care (published

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced free PPE for all frontline health and care staff has been extended until 31 March 2023. The move follows after a public consultation was launched in October 2021 to determine whether to extend the central, free provision of PPE. Over 5,000 responses were received, from a

The government has expanded the Health and Care Visa scheme in a bid to stem the care sector recruitment crisis, making foreign care workers eligible for fast-track UK visas. The change means foreign care home and home care workers will be eligible for the Health and Care Visa for a 12 month period. The Migration

The NHS will treat more people with Covid-19 at home by remotely monitoring them as part of a ‘virtual wards’ model. To prepare for NHS staff shortages caused by workers self-isolating due to the variant Omicron, the NHS will fit oximeters to patients’ fingers at home to observe their oxygen levels and assess whether or

Support Social Care Heroes has been set up to recognise the sacrifices that care workers make and support them by offering person-centred, holistic wellbeing programmes. Its mission is to ‘work in partnership with care homes and provide grants and support to improve the lives of social care heroes in the long-term’. The charity plans to

MPs have voted in favour of an amendment to the social care cap, meaning some of the poorest homeowners in England will have to sell their houses to pay for care, with more protection given to wealthier homeowners. Boris Johnson narrowly succeeded in getting MPs to back his social care cap for England, but with

Home care workers and frontline NHS staff will be required by law to have the Covid-19 vaccine from next April in order to keep their jobs, the health secretary has announced. Only workers who do not have face-to-face contact with patients or who are medically exempt will not be required to get vaccinated. Sajid Javid