The National Care Forum – the leading association for not-for-profit care providers – welcomes the changes to visiting that are to come into effect on 21st June. In the latest step to restore care home visits to as close as normal as possible the government has announced changes to the visiting arrangements.
Vic Rayner, CEO of the National Care Forum says:
“The clear statement by government outlining that each and every care home resident should have access to an essential care giver is an important step in ensuring that all residents are supported by those who are most important to them through any further restrictions or outbreaks. The vital connection between residents and their loved ones has been broken for too long for many people, and this guidance will bring a sense of normality one step closer for those most impacted by this pandemic. In addition, the press release appears to outline a vital next step in terms of ensuring people can be admitted to care homes from their own home and we anticipate access the respite care that they need, without having to go through 14 days of isolation. This will have a huge impact on people who need care and their families.
“The pressure on carers and those needing care cannot be overstated. In recent months as people have begun to have freedoms returned, we were hearing more and more about people unable to take important decisions about when and how to access care because of the incredibly negative impact of isolation. Finally, we welcome the understanding that people in care homes are part of communities, and need to be able to take part in their wider family life by staying away overnight with family and friends and not having to isolate on return. These are all positive steps towards the full levels of freedom we hope that everyone in care homes will now be able to achieve in line with the wider population on the 19th July.
“However, as ever, the implementation of this new guidance does not come without a cost. The government must take action immediately to support these changes and ensure that everyone can benefit from the updates outlined. It must not be forgotten that on 30th June all additional funding allocated to cover costs associated with Infection Prevention and Control, the management and support of visiting and enhanced testing comes to an end. Care providers desperately need future funding confirmed to ensure they can continue to pay staff to isolate effectively, to increase their capacity to facilitate and administer enhanced testing for those admitted to care homes, or visiting out of care homes, and enhanced visiting capacity and testing for greater numbers of essential care givers. Hundreds of thousands of residents and their relatives require this key issue to be addressed urgently. As ever the detail is required, and at present we are still waiting to see the full guidance underpinning these arrangements.”
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Note to Editors:
- The National Care Forum brings together over 130 of the UK’s leading social care organisations, representing large numbers of care providers, offering thousands of services across the country, which are not for profit and always at the heart of community provision. Collectively, these organisations deliver more than £2 billion of social care support to more than 167,000 people in 9,200 settings. The NCF membership body collectively employs more than 95,500 colleagues.
- Updated government guidance: Care home residents can stay overnight as visiting restrictions ease
- More information is available on the National Care Forum at www.nationalcareforum.org.uk. @NCFCareForum @vicrayner @NCF_Liz
- Vic Rayner is the CEO of the NCF and in addition is on the board of Hestia, the Care Workers Charity and the Global Ageing Network
- For enquiries, please contact Edna Petzen, edna.petzen@nationalcareforum.org.uk
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