PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Care Homes: Coronavirus (3 February 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of prioritising covid-19 vaccinations for the relatives of care home residents to enable those relatives to be able to resume visits to those residents.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

Although the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not made an explicit consideration of including relatives of care homes residents, this does not prevent them visiting their loved ones. It is not a condition of visiting that the visitor or the resident should have been vaccinated. However, it is strongly recommended that all visitors and residents take up the opportunity to be vaccinated when they are invited to do so through the national programme.

As part of the roadmap publication on 22 February, we confirmed that new visiting arrangements would start on 8 March. From then, every care home was asked to ensure that each resident can nominate one named person who can have regular, indoor visits.

Those residents with the highest care needs can nominate an “Essential Care Giver”. These visitors will be able to visit more often in order to provide essential care. They will have the same testing and PPE arrangements as care home staff so that they can safely provide extra support, like help with washing and dressing or eating well. Of course, over time an increasing proportion of visitors will be vaccinated by virtue of their age or other factors such as being an unpaid carer.

Guidance on care home visiting can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes

Answered by:
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative)
7 April 2021