CQC Care Homes

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that people working in CQC- registered care homes will need to be fully Covid-19 vaccinated, with both doses, as a condition of employment moving forward.

How will this impact organisations?

Making the COVID-19 vaccine compulsory in Care homes (CQC) could cause significant staffing resource problems for affected organisations if staff choose not to have the vaccine despite the possibility that they will lose their job as a result.

Fair Process – Is one still required?

One important consideration for organisations is that, if it comes to looking at terminating employment, a full and fair procedure will still be needed in line with ACAS Guidance. A change in the law on vaccines in this way does not mean an exemption from normal rules on achieving a fair dismissal.

We shall provide a further update in regard to this situation as they become available.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4 th  April 2021: Other rates of pay are increasing (including maternity and paternity)

New statutory pay rates for 2021/22 for the below. Maternity Pay, Paternity Pay, Adoption Pay, Shared Parental Pay, and Parental Bereavement Pay are
all increasing from £151.20 to £151.97 (or equivalent to 90% of employee’s average week earnings).

6 th  April 2021: Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

The SSP rate will be increasing to £96.35 per week. This rate will depend on the number of ‘qualifying days’ the employee works each week. Gender pay gap reporting, now extended up until October 2021 (originally been April 2021) Employers with 250 or more employees are legally entitled to report the difference in earnings between male and female workers. This allows organisations to understand the extent of the pay disparity. It also gives insight to be able to develop strategies to narrow the gender pay gap.
Most public authority employers were expected to report this gender pay gap information by 30 th  March 2021. Private and all other public authority employers were expected to do so by 4 th  April 2021.

This has now been extended by 6 months, with reporting for all employers to be provided by 5th October 2021. However, please be aware that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is still encouraging companies to report their gender pay gap information by the previous deadline of April 2021 if possible.