Responding to The Telegraph’s revelation that plans for mandatory vaccines in both the NHS and social care sector will be scrapped, Nadra Ahmed OBE, who chairs the National Care Association, said: “This decision epitomises the lack of foresight by ministers in choosing to drive the implementation of this policy without producing impact assessment prior to taking it to the vote.

“Every parliamentarian who voted for it in social care needs to take responsibility for the loss of staff our sector have suffered because of an ill-thought out policy. Social care has been used as a pilot which has devastated our workforce and brought providers to their knees.”

Mike Padgham, the chairman of the Independent Care Group for York and North Yorkshire and the owner of Saint Cecilia’s Care Services, which operates four care businesses, said: “It feels like a bit of a slap in the face.

“I like to think that all those staff that lost their jobs would get them back again, because we need them. It’s what we argued in the beginning – the vaccine was a good thing, but it shouldn’t be mandatory.

“Common sense seems to have prevailed now, but there’s been a lot of heartache and sleepless nights for people – unnecessarily – in the midst of a pandemic, when we all said at the beginning that this wasn’t the right approach.

“This just shows that they don’t understand the difference between the NHS and social care sectors and both need to be strong to support each other. “

It is understood that the Government is anticipating backlash from carers who lost their jobs as a result of the policy.

In October, the courts rejected an initial judicial review application that challenged the Government’s vaccine mandate for workers in CQC-regulated care homes. However, it is now anticipated that if those who want their jobs back struggle to get them back, will seek legal action and a renewed application.