Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's guidance, updated on 6 January 2021, A testing service for homecare workers in England, for what reason personal assistants were excluded from the guidance on regular testing for care workers.
On 23 November, we extended asymptomatic testing to all registered domiciliary care workers to help protect staff and people who receive care. Offering routine asymptomatic testing to directly employed or self-employed individual staff, such as personal assistants, presented additional logistical challenges which we worked to overcome.
Regular weekly polymerase chain reaction testing for personal assistants launched on 17 February 2021. Personal assistants can order four test kits every 28 days from the Government’s test portal.