MPs want care home guidance 'underpinned' by law and tell CQC to 'get a grip' and get visit data

Care home residents have a right to family life and visits from loved ones must be ‘underpinned’ by law, say MPs behind a new report which also calls on the Care Quality Commission to ‘get a grip’ and collect data on care home visits.

A cross-party group of MPs sitting on the Joint Committee on Human Rights, have published the report ‘Care homes: Visiting restrictions during the covid-19 pandemic’ and also prepared a draft statutory instrument to lay before Parliament to secure legal protection for care home residents deprived of family visits.

'Completely unacceptable'

Government Covid guidance for care home visits makes clear that care home providers should not impose blanket bans on visiting but should instead conduct individualised risk assessments for each resident.

However, the Committee highlighted: ‘Without statutory force, there is no legal recourse for residents to require their providers to implement the guidance’.

MPs have called it ‘completely unacceptable’ for care homes to deny residents vital family links by claiming visits are unsafe without doing individualised assessments.

The Committee want the government to make the existing requirements for individualised assessment for visits mandatory by laying its draft Regulations, as soon as possible.

Questions of deprivation of liberty under Article 5 ECHR as well as unjustified interference with the right to family life’ (Article 8 ECHR) ‘remain a consideration’ the Committee stated.

Harriet Harman, MP and Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, said: “For far too many families and their loved ones in residential care homes, the pandemic has been utterly heart-breaking because of the breach of the right to family life.

“Restrictions on visiting rights must be only be implemented on the basis of an individualised risk assessment which takes into account the risks to the resident’s physical and mental wellbeing of not having visits.

“By not underpinning this guidance in law, care homes have not felt bound by it and important rights have therefore not been respected."

CQC made ‘unconvincing’ assurances about visits

The Committee says the Government has a duty to protect the lives of residents in care homes, but it also has an obligation to uphold their right to family life ‘and ensure it is facilitated in practice’.

Harriet Harman added: “The Care Quality Commission assurances that visits are being allowed properly now in all homes is wholly unconvincing.

“Because care homes see guidance about allowing visits as advisory rather than binding, the Government must now bring forward regulations to give their guidance on visits legal force.

“As Professor Van Tam said last week, it is incredibly safe for two fully vaccinated people to meet freely. The Government’s guidance on visiting in and out of care homes must now reflect this.

“Restoring their [residents] human rights must be a matter of priority.”

The new report also described as ‘astonishing’ the lack of awareness by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as to whether care homes are complying with guidance allowing visits.

The Committee stated it was ‘astonished that the Care Quality Commission was unable to offer a clear picture of adherence to the guidance within the care home sector.

The CQC has been urged to ‘get a grip and implement robust processes on data collection and monitoring of visits’ by the end of May 2021.

The Committee wants the CQC to "urgently" establish better processes for collecting data and monitoring the right of care home residents to receive visitors.

It must collect and publish live data on levels of visiting in every care home, the number of complaints that have been received and how these have been resolved.

The CQC should also 'immediately look at a sample of care homes to help it assess the sector’s compliance with the government’s visiting guidance.’

CQC chief inspector of adult social care, Kate Terroni, said: “We have been clear throughout that the individual must be at the centre of decisions around visiting.

“Concerns have been raised with us about 30 potential blanket bans and we have taken action in every case.”

DHSC did not ‘consult widely enough when preparing new guidance’

The Department for Health and Social Care was also criticised in the report for having not ‘consulted widely enough when preparing new guidance for the care home sector or provided sufficient notice to families and providers when announcing significant changes to visiting procedures’.

The Committee’s report concluded: ‘Greater involvement for residents groups in the preparation of guidance would ensure that strong advocates for the right to private and family life are heard when key decisions are made’.

The co-founder of Rights for Residents, Jenny Morrison, gave evidence to the Committee.

Jenny Morrison said: “We relatives all feel that we have had to watch for over a year now as our loved ones have deteriorated. It has been like grieving for people who were still alive.”

The Committee heard from other families who described time restrictions on visiting or in person visits involving the use of telephones behind plastic screens.