Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2020 to Question 64381 on Baby Care Units: Coronavirus, if he will make it his policy for rapid testing for parents of babies in neonatal care to be prioritised in line with the recommendations of the First Report of the Petitions Committee of Session 2019-21, entitled The impact of Covid-19 on maternity and parental leave, HC 526, published on 6 July 2020.

It is essential that the mother and her partner are never considered to be visitors within the neonatal unit – they are partners in their baby’s care and their presence should be encouraged. The mother and her newborn should have unrestricted contact when admission to a neonatal unit is unavoidable.

The same arrangements for COVID-19 testing should be offered to parents as are applied to staff, in order to minimise unnecessary separation. This includes testing of symptomatic parents and testing of suspected contacts.

An asymptomatic mother who is awaiting the result of routine COVID-19 admission screening should usually be allowed to attend her baby in the neonatal unit and to provide skin to skin care.