Health and Social Service: Coronavirus

(asked on 3rd July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that staff working in the NHS and the social care sector are able to access (a) antibody testing and (b) regular antigen testing.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 12th November 2020

National Health Service staff in all regions in England have been offered the opportunity to take an antibody test should they wish to have one. Social care workers in England have been eligible for a free antibody test at an NHS test site. We have also recently launched a new at-home testing service. This service provides a new route for adult social care staff to access antibody tests, giving greater flexibility and choice. This includes staff working in residential care, domiciliary care, extra care, supported living, local authority adult social care departments and staff working as personal assistants for individuals who receive adult social care services.

The adult social care sector has been, and continues to be, one of our highest priorities for the rollout of testing, and care homes have been one of the first groups to be given access to repeat asymptomatic testing. This includes weekly testing for care home staff weekly and residents every 28 days.


The NHS has set out its guidance when staff without symptoms should be tested, including where there is an incident, outbreak or high prevalence. The NHS have made testing available to all symptomatic NHS staff as a priority.


We are also testing those who are asymptomatic in specific circumstances where appropriate. For NHS workers specifically, NHS England has recently published guidance on when testing of this nature might be appropriate, including where an incident has taken place, an outbreak or where high prevalence has been established. In addition, NHS staff can also enrol in Public Health England’s SIREN study. This enables us to monitor prevalence in NHS staff to help us identify areas of higher prevalence where asymptomatic NHS staff testing is needed. Currently 102 trusts are participating in SIREN with 34,954 participants enrolled.

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