Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government plans to reintroduce visiting in care homes as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased; whether that reintroduction will follow a staggered approach; and what support his Department plans to provide to care homes to help them reintroduce visiting as safely as possible.

Our aim is to enable residents to be reunited safely with their loved ones. This guidance will be updated as the risk posed by COVID-19 continues to change.

On 22 July 2020 the Government published updated guidance on visiting arrangements for care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus

Our first priority is to prevent infections in care homes and therefore visits should be carried out with caution.

Care homes can develop their visiting policies based on a local dynamic risk assessment, taking into account the circumstances and needs of the individual care setting, including both residents and staff, and the external COVID-19 environment. The process of considering visitors should be led by the relevant local Director of Public Health.