Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to enable residents of care settings to safely visit their family members.

Since the start of this pandemic, we have been working closely with the sector and public health experts to put in place guidance and support for adult social care, including for visits.

We know how important it is for residents in care settings to be able to spend time with their loved ones, including to make visits outside of the care home setting. Guidance to local areas and care providers on visits out of a care home, for example to a family home, is being developed and will be published shortly.

This will supplement our existing guidance on visiting arrangements into care homes – that supports care homes to develop their visiting policies based on a local dynamic risk assessment, led by the relevant Director of Public Health.