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The Swine Flu Vaccination Programme for social care workers

- If you can’t catch it, you can’t pass it on

Essex County Council has been working closely with our NHS Partners to support the delivery of the Swine Flu vaccination programme to health and social care employees in Essex. Keeping social care provision running effectively during the swine flu pandemic is a vital challenge for us this winter. As you may have heard, the Department of Health has recently reported that up to 12% of the NHS and Social Care workforce could fall ill during the pandemic. The peak of staff absences are also likely to coincide with other winter pressures on our service provision, leaving service users in a potentially vulnerable position.

Health and social care professionals are particularly at risk of contracting swine flu, and the Department of Health has identified these employee groups as a priority group in the first phase of its vaccination programme. It is vital to prevent employees from passing on the virus to service users (some of whom may be more susceptible to the virus due to age, illness or pregnancy) and other colleagues. We therefore strongly encourage health and social care employees to take up the vaccine as quickly as possible.

Is the vaccine safe?

While the Swine Flu vaccine itself is new, it is very similar to existing H5N1 vaccines that have been developed over many years, and have been extensively tested in clinical trials. To date around 7,000 people have received swine flu vaccines in clinical trials. The trials have shown that these vaccines are well tolerated and that they produce enough antibodies to provide protection.

Development and testing of the vaccine has been taking place on an ongoing basis since July 2009. These extensive trials give us confidence that the new Swine Flu vaccines carry a very low risk and high protection rate and as such they have now been licensed for use in 27 European countries.

Which employees are eligible?

The Department of Health and leading clinical professionals have agreed priority ‘at risk’ groups who will be offered the first doses of the swine flu vaccination. Many people in this group will be the clients that you care for who are offered the seasonal flu vaccine.

The Department of Health have also agreed a similar priority for frontline health and social care sector workers as they are at increased risk of infection and transmitting that infection to vulnerable people.

Social care employees involved in the delivery of ‘personal care’ to service users are eligible. Examples of staff who would be included in this definition are:

• Care home staff in residential / nursing homes who provide personal care to residents
• Domiciliary care workers employed by agencies who provide personal care to service users in their own homes
• Personal Assistants – staff employed to provide personal care

Please see Annex A for the Department of Health definition of a ‘frontline social care worker’ eligible for the vaccine.

We have arranged for 14 vaccination venues to be available throughout Essex. Vaccinations will be available to eligible employees at no cost to you as a County Council Employee from 23rd November 2009, via a central booking system tel no. 0845 602 6872 which can be used from 16th November 2009.

What do you need to do now?

Please urge your eligible employees to take up the offer of the vaccine. Early vaccination will help protect you, your colleagues, those in your care and your business. Steps you can take to encourage take up are:

• Direct employees to the Department of Health leaflet which outlines the benefits of the vaccine and addresses any concerns that staff may have due to lack of information. This is available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_107404

• Managers should directly ask their employees if they intend to have the swine flu vaccine as this will prompt take up and be at no extra cost to you or your staff.

• Please give your eligible employees a copy of the schedule showing the vaccination booking phone number and venue details, as part of the identification process that will be needed at the venue. This will only be considered valid if signed by the employee’s manager.

• Please remind employees that they will also need evidence of their identity.

• Encourage employees to plan their swine flu vaccination and to block out a time to allow this. Please encourage your employees to use the swine flu booking telephone number on 0845 602 6872 or provide support in doing this on their behalf. We have consulted with Providers of both Residential and Domiciliary care and the hours of operation have been designed to promote maximum take-up and support your business continuity.

• After vaccination, employees will receive a letter to give to their GP. This is essential because in any medical situation medical staff need to know the most up to date information on what has been given or prescribed.

• Providers should be aware that any fraudulent use of this letter to obtain a vaccine is a criminal offence.

Who I can I contact?

Essex County Council is supporting its providers to take up the vaccine as an essential part of strengthening the resilience of the health and social care sector in Essex. If you have any organisational/administration queries about the information provided in this letter please ’phone ‘Contact Essex’, tel. no. 08457 430 430. For health related issues please ‘phone the National Pandemic Flu Service on 0800 1 513 513, NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or your GP.

Annex A

Definition of Frontline Social Care Worker for H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccination Programme

The definition for social care workers is: “social care staff who are employed to provide personal care to children and adults, both in care homes and in the community”.

The Government has agreed the following definition. “Personal care" means:

• physical assistance given to a person in connection with:
• Eating or drinking (including the administration of parenteral nutrition),
• Toileting (including in relation to the process of menstruation),
• Washing or bathing,
• Dressing,
• Oral care, or
• the care of skin, hair and nails (with the exception of nail care provided by a chiropodist or podiatrist); or

• the prompting, together with supervision, of a person, in relation to the performance of any of the activities listed in the paragraph above, where that person is unable to make a decision for themselves in relation to performing such an activity without such prompting and supervision.

Some examples of staff who would be included in this definition are:

• Care home staff in residential/nursing homes who provide personal care to residents
• Domiciliary care workers employed by agencies who provide personal care to service users in their own homes
• Personal assistants – staff employed to provide personal care to a single service user
• Students and trainees in these disciplines

And examples of people who would not be included are:

• Social workers
• Informal carers – family members and/or friends
• Non care staff in residential/nursing homes
• Housing staff – those who work in managing sheltered and similar housing
• Staff working in child or adult safeguarding