Relatives of care home residents to be treated as ‘key workers’ in pilot testing scheme

Relatives of care homes residents could be treated as ‘essential workers’ and given regular tests to allow them to visit their loved ones more often.

Care minister Helen Whately announced that the government will launch a pilot project shortly.

If successful it could offer a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people this winter.

In England the government’s winter plan for Covid-19 recommends that visits to care homes are limited.

But charity Age UK has warned that some people are dying “of sadness” because they have been cut off from the people they love for long periods of time.    

Ms Whately told MPs a new pilot scheme would investigate if family members can be treated like key workers, including with regular tests, allowing them to enter homes more often.

Asked about the suggestions, which would apply to a named relative, Ms Whately said: “ I am planning for us to launch a pilot on that shortly. I can't give you a date, but what I can say is we're moving forward with it and we are going to pilot it.”

She added: “Visiting is incredibly important for residents and their families and care homes. I really want us to enable visiting but it must be safe.

“I think you do have to recognise that should a visitor take Covid, they are not just endangering the individual they're visiting but actually it's very hard to control Covid within a residential setting.”

She dismissed a similar call for residents to be able to make their own decisions about visits, however.

“It's not as simple as just a sort of agreement between resident and visitor,” she said.

She also told MPs that from September, under the winter plan, staff must now only work in one care home, in a bid to stem the spread of infections.

She told the Science and Technology and Health and Social Care committees the new rules were now "mandated" and no longer simply guidance.