Assurance of COVID-19 vaccination offer for all eligible health and social care workers

Contents

 

Classification: Official

Publication approval reference: C1121

To:

  • ICS and STP leads
  • CCG accountable officers
  • NHS trust chief executives
  • Local authority chief executives

CC:

  • ICS and STP chairs
  • CCG chairs
  • NHS trust and foundation trust chairs
  • All PCNs and GP practices
  • NHS regional directors
  • NHS regional directors of commissioning

9 February 2021

Dear Colleagues

Thank you for your ongoing work to support the response to the COVID vaccination programme. Your efforts have supported the vaccination of more than 10 million people in the last two months.

Following our letter dated 7 January 2021, which set out the operational guidance to vaccinate frontline health and care workers, we are writing to you now to ask you to assure the offer of a vaccination to these priority cohorts has been fulfilled.

We are therefore asking you, as ICS and STP leaders, to work across your system to ensure all eligible frontline health and care staff have been offered a vaccination by 15 February, and to confirm that has been done.

Eligible frontline health and care workers include those in independent, voluntary and non-standard healthcare settings, as well as those working for sub-contracted providers – eg facilities services such as portering or cleaning. Particular attention should be paid to ensure uptake addresses underlying health inequalities. Further guidance on health and social care workers who are eligible can be found here.

For Hospital Hubs

As the default provider for COVID-19 vaccination of all frontline health and social care workers, hospital hubs must work with system partners to ensure all steps have been taken to offer all eligible frontline health and social care workers a vaccination before 15 February.

The NHS Trust SITREP must be completed and returned as this will be used to nationally assure vaccination against recommendations for the independent JCVI and updated PHE Green Book, to monitor uptake and to track vaccination of at-risk or hesitant groups.

For CCG clinical commissioners

Clinical commissioners are expected to work with regional and local vaccine operations centres, local authority partners, primary care, including GPs, dentists, optometrists and community pharmacists, other independent, charitable and voluntary providers of healthcare workers – including locum, agency and bank staff – and frontline funeral operatives, mortuary technicians and embalmers to ensure all are included in local arrangements and have been offered a vaccination by 15 February.

All commissioners are required to complete and return the CCG SITREP to support national assurance. They will need to work with individual providers, with the support of regional teams, to complete the SITREP.

For local authorities

Local authorities are expected to work with their local NHS partners to ensure eligible frontline social care workers who have yet to receive a vaccination are offered one before 15 February.

The government ‘Green Book’ for immunisation against infectious disease includes the following definition for frontline social workers:

  • Those working in long-stay residential and nursing care homes or other long-stay facilities where rapid spread is likely to following introduction of infection and cause high morbidity and mortality.
  • Social care staff directly involved in the care of their patients or clients.
  • Others involved directly in delivering social care such that they and vulnerable patients are at increased risk of exposure.

The Green Book also stipulates that young people aged 16-18, who are employed in, studying or in training for health and social care work should be offered the vaccination alongside their colleagues if a suitable vaccination is available.

Local authority vaccination leads should work with their local CCG to ensure that all CQC-registered domiciliary care providers and care homes, as well as employees in non CQC-registered setting have been contacted and offered a vaccination by Monday 15 February.

To assist with this, and the recording and monitoring of uptake, the Department of Health and Social Care has revised the Capacity Tracker. This allows data relating to directly employed staff, as well as employees in non CQC-registered settings who have been included in frontline social care worker cohort 2 baseline locally, to be inputted.

Vaccination offers to cohorts 1 – 4

Over the next seven days national communications will encourage all of those in JCVI cohorts 1-4 who have yet to have been contacted or who would now like to access a vaccination to come forward.

ICS and STP partners are now therefore asked to redouble their effort and ensure that they have plans in place across all vaccination services for those in the priority 1-4 cohorts when they come forward.

All ICSs and STPs are required to confirm, in writing, that the actions set out in this letter have been completed by Friday 12 February at 1700. A template letter is included in Annex 1 – please send your completed template to england.covidvaccs@nhs.net

Thank you for your continued leadership on this vital programme.

Emily Lawson | NHS Chief Commercial Officer and SRO Vaccine Deployment

Dr Nikita Kanani MBE | Medical Director for Primary Care

Prerana Issar | Chief People Officer

Sir David Pearson CBE | Chair, Social Care Sector | COVID-19 Support Task Force

Eleanor Kelly | LA CEO advisor

Annex 1: Letter confirming completion of actions

Dear XXXX,

Re: Assurance of COVID-19 vaccination offer for all eligible health care workers

In response to your letter dated 9 February, I am writing on behalf of [insert name of STP/ICS] to confirm that all eligible front line health and social care workers, as defined within the Green Book, have received at least one offer to have a COVID-19 vaccination.

For those members of staff who have chosen not to proceed with a vaccination at this time, a process has been agreed by all partners within the STP to provide members of staff that come forward in the future with a route to receive a vaccination.