Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the availability of covid-19 testing in supported living settings.

In September 2020, we commenced a round of national testing to higher risk extra care and supported living settings. Following this, in December 2020, we launched regular PCR retesting in higher risk extra care and supported living: weekly testing for staff and monthly for residents.

In order to be eligible for testing, Extra Care and Supported Living settings should meet both of the following criteria:

- a closed community with substantial facilities shared between multiple people; and

- where most residents receive the kind of personal care that is Care Quality Commission regulated, rather than help with cooking, cleaning and shopping.

These criteria were set in consultation with the sector to identify settings most similar to care homes, and most at risk of an outbreak. As a result, settings meeting these criteria are ones where the risk of transmission and outbreak is high, and the impact on service users may be high given their vulnerability.

In December, we also launched a self-referral portal, which has supported us in identifying more settings meeting these criteria, reducing the burden on local authorities, and extending testing to more people.