Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of care homes that are permitting a named family member to visit care home residents during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department does not hold data on the number of care homes currently allowing a named family member to visit residents. New visiting arrangements will come into effect on 8 March. From that date, every care home should ensure that each resident can nominate one named person who can have regular, indoor visits.

We will work with the sector to support care homes to provide the visiting opportunities set out in our guidance. Each residents’ circumstances will be different and decisions on visiting will need to be taken in agreement between the care home, the resident and family.