In a week where health secretary Sajid Javid announced that the ‘no jab, no job’ policy on Covid vaccination would be extended to cover frontline workers within NHS England, one nursery owner has shared her view that vaccine take-up should remain a personal choice and responsibility.
Sharon Birch is the owner and safeguarding lead of Footprints Learning for Life Nursery, a nursery school based in Hartlepool, County Durham. Footprints remained open throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in order to support children and families during lockdown, and some of the youngsters within its care are classed as clinically vulnerable.
Unlike the situation within the health and social care sector, staff within childcare, early years education and primary and secondary education are not subject to mandatory vaccination. While Birch believes that nursery staff have a responsibility to make a positive choice over vaccine take-up, in order to protect vulnerable pupils, she was clear that it should remain optional and that people’s reservations over coming forward for the jab are to be respected.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell, former police officer Birch said: “This is an emotive subject. I have 32 staff at Footprints, and we look after 150 children throughout the week, some of whom are clinically vulnerable. My view is that we should all be double-jabbed, and I encourage my staff to go and get the vaccine.
“It is also an advantage for us operationally for our staff to be vaccinated since they do not have to isolate if they contract the virus. If I have staff who are not jabbed that need to take time off to isolate and I don’t have the people to cover them, it becomes an issue for us. They are also entitled to sick pay while absent which has a knock-on effect for us financially.
“However, I acknowledge that it is down to personal responsibility and personal choice. As an employer, I don’t want to be bullying or coercing staff, or forcing them to get the injection. While I believe we have a responsibility in our roles looking after children to be aware of the transmission rates and do our part to keep them and their parents safe, it is entirely personal choice in my view.”
With two members of her staff team having refused the vaccine to date, Birch explained how she chose to sit down and engage in constructive in-house discussions with them and encourage them to test themselves regularly, rather than become embroiled in any dispute.
“Sitting down properly with staff to get their views as to why they don’t want the jab gives them a chance to express their perspective,” Birch explained.
“The main reasons for their hesitancy to go forward stem from fear because they have known people to become poorly after having the jab, and I am sympathetic of that.
“I don’t want to be threatening to dismiss members of staff and accusing them of neglecting their responsibility to our children if they do not get vaccinated. Legal cases don’t help anyone, and it would have an adverse effect on our business being bogged down in all of that for sure.”
Nursery owners such as Sharon Birch must also consider the implications of trying to implement their own in-house policies on vaccination. In a difficult environment for recruitment in the health and social care sector, care providers are already under pressure from enforced staff dismissals and rising vacancies, plus the exacerbating effect of the ‘no jab, no job’ policy rendering many potential candidates inaccessible because they have not been vaccinated.
Legal experts appearing on the same BBC Radio 5 Live programme advised leaders in the early years and childcare sectors to instead turn to regular Covid testing and PPE usage to help maintain peace of mind. They also suggested that unvaccinated staff members could potentially be redeployed to non-contact roles within their organisations where possible, as an alternative to dismissal.
In sectors where the ‘no jab, no job’ policy is in place, exemptions to the rule are being upheld on medical grounds, and it is recommended by law experts that this is respected by any business leader in any sector who may be actively encouraging their workforce to go forward for the vaccine.
Photo by CDC on Unsplash
