Care Home News
Coronavirus: Self-cleaning lodge lets care home family visits continue
29 Sep 2020
A care home visitors' lodge that can clean itself has arrived in Reading to allow family visits to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shinfield View Care Home installed the self-cleaning lodge to ensure.....
Care home reunites Frank with family for socially-distanced 100th birthday party
29 Sep 2020
An outstanding care home spent months planning a socially-distanced birthday party for a 100 year-old man with family and friends to surprise him. War veteran Frank Reed spent breakfast looking at his many.....
Matt Hancock promises 11,000 free iPads to care homes to 'reduce unnecessary visits'
28 Sep 2020
Free iPads will be given to thousands of care homes, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has promised to stop the spread of COVID-19 by ‘reducing unnecessary visits’. Up to 11,000 iPad tablets will be distributed.....
Care homes offered higher fees to take COVID-19 patients
28 Sep 2020
Care homes in Cumbria are being offered £1,500 – that's double the local weekly fee - to take COVID-positive hospital patients, prompting a care operator to speak out against the move. Care homes in the.....
Extra care housing couple who moved in together during lockdown get married
25 Sep 2020
A couple who met two years ago when they both moved into the same extra care housing accommodation have tied the knot lockdown style with residents and friends wishing them well from the garden. Dennis and.....
Care home resident who misses 'bairns' calls for end to visiting restrictions
25 Sep 2020
A Scottish care home resident has taken to social media to appeal to the government to lift current care home restrictions so she can see her family and have her “bairns roundabout" her. Resident Mary Fowler,.....
Care village residents recreate iconic portraits for National Day of Arts in Care Homes
24 Sep 2020
Residents from a Crewe dementia care village have recreated some of the world’s most iconic paintings to celebrate National Day of Arts in Care Homes. The recreated works include images from some of history’s.....
Ageing expert awarded £600,000 to improve end of life care in UK's care homes
24 Sep 2020
A University of Stirling academic has been awarded £600,000 to lead a project to improve end of life care in care homes in the UK. The project, led by Dr Liz Forbat, an associate professor in the faculty.....
Care home leader warns depriving residents of visits risks them 'giving up hope'
23 Sep 2020
A national care home body and Age UK are warning the government that depriving residents of the “unprecedented pleasure” brought by visits from loved ones risks the “raw reality” of residents going “downhill fast, giving up hope and.....
Care home provider embraces technology using online chat service to find new residents
22 Sep 2020
A care home provider is embracing technology and using an online chat service to give immediate advice to prospective residents and their families. Porthaven, which has 17 care homes across the UK, is thinking.....
Government confirms care home residents and staff will get priority COVID-19 testing this winter
22 Sep 2020
The government has announced all care home staff and residents will be prioritised for coronavirus testing this winter to ‘protect the most vulnerable’ amid the second wave of coronavirus. The announcement.....
Coronavirus: Care minister tells councils to limit care home visits
21 Sep 2020
The care minister has written to councils to tell them to protect care home residents by limiting family visits. Care minister Helen Whately stated in a letter to council leaders "now is the time to act".....
Care home manager receives 'appallingly abusive' phone calls and letters over visit restrictions
18 Sep 2020
A manager of a care home has revealed she has received “appallingly abusive” phone calls and letters due to the care home visit restrictions she has had to put in place. At the height of the pandemic, over.....
Care home and home care workers to get free PPE until March 2021
18 Sep 2020
Care home residents and staff as well as home care workers and the people they care for, are to get free PPE until March 2021, according to the government. Free PPE is part of the new Adult Social Care Winter.....
Ombudsman warns government social care complaints system needs 'mandatory signposting'
17 Sep 2020
The government has been urged to introduce ‘mandatory signposting’ after an annual report revealed only 14 per cent of people who use private care providers complained of poor service to the ombudsman in 2019-20. The.....
Care Workers Charity launches mental health grants and counselling for care workers
17 Sep 2020
The Care Workers Charity (CWC) is to launch mental health grants and counselling to ensure care workers receive the right type of guidance and support to help them through what has been a 'very dark period'. With.....
Government extends Infection Control Fund to protect care homes and home care against COVID-19
17 Sep 2020
The government has announced it is giving care providers an extra £546m, so they can pay staff full wages if they have to self-isolate and hire more care workers to limit movement of staff between care homes, to help stop the spread.....
Northumberland gets £12m care home designed to create sense of 'home' as well as 'care'
16 Sep 2020
The Duchess of Northumberland is opening a new £12m care home in Alnwick which has been designed to create a sense of ‘home’ as well as ‘care’. The purpose-built Beech Tree House, at Lisburn Terrace, Alnwick,.....
Government to prioritise coronavirus tests for care home staff
16 Sep 2020
The government has revealed it is to prioritise coronavirus testing for care home and NHS staff and next on the list will be school pupils and their parents. Health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock.....
Care home adds life-size gorilla to its menagerie of wooden animals
15 Sep 2020
Pendine Park care home in Wrexham now has its very own life-size gorilla to go with a grizzly bear, squirrels, owls and hawks. Paul Morris, who is part of the gardening and maintenance team at the care home, is also a chainsaw.....
Care homes banning visitors to keep residents safe could face litigation over human rights breach, warns barrister
15 Sep 2020
A rise in COVID-19 among the general population and in care homes has led to some residential settings banning all non-essential visitors, however a barrister has warned that although fear of legal liability has led them to lockdown.....
ADASS boss wants care home staff to get priority testing, PPE and full sick pay to stop COVID-19 rise
14 Sep 2020
The chief of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care has called for full sick pay for care staff and for care homes to be treated as a priority when it comes to testing and PPE, in the wake of a warning from the government.....
Care home residents craving outdoor exercise start Captain Tom inspired walking challenge
11 Sep 2020
A care home's residents are exercising outside like Captain Tom with a garden-walking challenge for charity to counteract the 'debilitating' impact of months of lockdown. Staff at Cramond Residence in Edinburgh.....
Councils order care homes to ban visitors
11 Sep 2020
Care homes are being told by councils to shut their doors again to visitors, just weeks after families were allowed in to see residents. The councils’ actions prompted by a rise in coronavirus cases in.....
Caring 8-year-old girl gives 'virtual hugs' and handmade gifts to care home every day for 5 months
10 Sep 2020
An eight-year-old girl has spent every day for the past five months visiting a care home to leave gifts of handmade friendship bracelets, flowers and ‘virtual hugs’. Jess Nolan has been spending lockdown.....
Government faces legal challenge over guidance on care home visits causing 'avoidable suffering'
08 Sep 2020
Families of care home residents are mounting a legal challenge to the government's guidance on care home visits in England, on the grounds that it violates their human rights and is causing 'avoidable suffering'. Over.....
Watch out for signs of care home abuse like weight loss, warns NICE guidance
03 Sep 2020
Care home staff and relatives are being urged to identify and stop abuse and neglect in care homes by following new draft guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The.....
Coronavirus deaths in care homes rise, latest figures reveal
02 Sep 2020
The number of care home coronavirus deaths have risen for the second week in a row, latest ONS figures published today reveal. There have been 43 COVID-19-linked deaths in care homes in England and Wales.....
Coronavirus: Care homes rent minibuses to get staff safely to work
02 Sep 2020
Minibuses are being hired to transport care home staff safely to and from work during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the country emerging from COVID-19 restrictions, care home providers Sunrise Senior Living.....