Covid-19 vaccinations are to be made compulsory for care home staff in England – as figures reveal a quarter of workers in Barnet are yet to receive a jab.

Staff will be given 16 weeks to get fully vaccinated from the time new legislation was approved by Parliament, health secretary Matt Hancock announced on 16th June.

He said the move, set to take effect from October, was aimed at protecting the most vulnerable from the virus and would cover all workers employed by a care home provider.

NHS figures show in Barnet, 637 out of 2,473 eligible staff, including agency workers at older adult care homes, had not received the first dose by 13th June, 26% of all those eligible for the vaccine. That proportion has fallen from 11th April, shortly after plans for mandatory vaccinations first emerged, when 34% were unvaccinated.

June Haydon, manager and part-owner of Green Trees Care Home in Chipping Barnet said: “My personal view is that it’s disgusting and an infringement of people’s human rights.

If the staff don’t want the vaccine that’s their choice but they’re going to lose their jobs if they don’t get it. Where am I going to get the new staff if they leave?”

June emphasised that Green Trees has not seen one Covid-19 case because it is a small home following strict measures.

She said: “They [the government] should come down here to get their hands dirty.

“I can’t have a vaccine because I’m allergic to the contents and other drugs. I suppose I won’t be able to come in now to manage the home.”

Nadra Ahmed, chief executive of the National Care Association, which represents care providers, said the government should use persuasion rather than force to encourage vaccine uptake.

She said: “The social care sector already has 112,000 vacancies and we are now at risk of being left with more.”

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said:

“The government’s sledgehammer approach now runs the risk that some care staff may simply walk away from an already understaffed, undervalued and underpaid sector.”