Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the guidance for eligibility for regular covid-19 testing for (a) personal assistants providing social and health care in the homes of their clients and (b) people working for agencies not registered with CQC is planned to be updated.
On 23 November 2020, we began offering Care Quality Commission registered domiciliary care organisations access to regular, weekly COVID-19 testing for their carers looking after people in their own homes. We have also extended testing to personal assistants.
Agency staff working for care homes or domiciliary care organisations should access regular testing through the organisation they are working for. Agency staff working for an individual receiving care will be able to access testing in the same way as personal assistants.