Between Mandate and Morality: Navigating Care Home Recruitment and Mandatory Vaccination during COVID-19

Emily Yarrow, Shiv Varma and Matthew J. Brannan
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Emily Yarrow: Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, UK
Shiv Varma: Head of Talent Acquisition, Team Care Homes
Matthew J. Brannan: Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2026, vol. 40, issue 2, 348-359

Abstract: We document the lived experience of Shiv, a care home recruitment manager, during the period of mandated employee vaccination in the COVID-19 pandemic. Care homes in the United Kingdom, as in many parts of the world, became a brutal front line in the battle to mitigate the pandemic’s worst effects. Residents and staff were among the most vulnerable to infection, a risk heightened by failure to test incoming residents and employees. In response to rising mortality in care homes, the UK government made vaccination a condition of employment from 11 November 2021. Through Shiv’s reflective narrative, we examine the ethical tensions and practical challenges of enforcing mandatory vaccination in care homes – and the confusion and consequences that followed its abrupt withdrawal.

Keywords: care homes; COVID-19; employment relationship; mandatory vaccination; marketisation; morality; recruitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:40:y:2026:i:2:p:348-359

DOI: 10.1177/09500170251396382

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