Care leaders welcome government's updated guidance for care home visits

Care leaders have welcomed the government's guidance to receive indoor visits in England from today and hope "consistency" and "vital continuity" of visits will be allowed to happen.

It is almost a year since all care homes closed their doors ahead of the first lockdown on 23 March.

Now, under updated guidance, published by the government, care home residents in England will be able to receive indoor visits from a nominated friend or relative as of today and blanket bans covering whole local authority areas are not appropriate.

In the guidance, it states that the care home will ask each resident who they would like to nominate as their single named visitor. Where the resident lacks the capacity to make this decision, the care home is encouraged to discuss the situation with the resident’s family, friends and others who may usually have visited the resident.

Visitors will be given a Covid test, wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and be asked to keep physical contact to a minimum.

Holding hands is permitted but hugs and kissing are not. Outdoor visits, window visits and those in pods should continue so residents can see other loved ones, it adds.

The National Care Forum (NCF) welcomes the arrival of the guidance on care home visiting as an important first step towards the resumption of meaningful visits for all.

Vic Rayner, chief executive at the National Care Forum, said: “The Prime Minister has made a commitment that this, and other cautious moves out of national lockdown, are ‘irreversible’ and he must ensure that all parties at local and national level work together to fulfil that promise."

She added: “Care home providers will continue to need support to implement this guidance. It is reliant on government sustaining free PPE, ongoing access to testing and to recognising the additional costs to care homes in managing the complexities of safe visiting within a pandemic.

"It is of huge concern that at the same time that the government is relaunching visiting, it has missed the opportunity within the budget to provide assurance that the emergency funding for testing and visiting will be extended beyond the end of March 2021. If the notion of an irreversible step forward in enabling visiting is to be believed, then the government must also put forward an irreversible commitment to resource it."

'We’ll be monitoring the roll-out carefully to ensure visits do happen consistently'

The guidance also states with residents who are unable to leave their rooms, those living with dementia or lack relevant mental capacity, providers can work with the resident, their family, friends and any volunteers to develop a tailored visiting policy within the principles outlined.

Gavin Terry, head of policy at Alzheimer's Society, said: “We’re pleased to see the new guidance, providing clarity to hundreds of thousands of people across the country, who have been tragically cut off from their loved ones in care homes, at least 70 per cent of whom have dementia.

“It’s essential that visits are seen as the default position – so it’s really helpful the government has clarified blanket bans on visiting are not acceptable. Along with other dementia charities, we’ve been campaigning for many months to ensure family carers are recognised as integral to care, treated similarly to staff, enabling them to provide the social and physical contact they so vitally need.

“People with dementia have been worst hit by the pandemic and have endured months of isolation, with an absolutely tragic impact on both them and their families.

"We’ll be monitoring the roll-out carefully to ensure visits do happen consistently and look for it to be extended to wider families as soon as safely possible. If anyone’s care home is still refusing visits, please contact Alzheimer’s Society where we can offer support.”

The government will decide whether to extend the number of visitors to two per resident at step two of its road map and no earlier than 12 April.

To read more about care home visits click here