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East Worthing and Shoreham
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New guidance to support safe care home visits during lockdown

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  • Visits should be tailored to residents and facilities and should prioritise residents and staff’s safety to limit the transmission of COVID-19
  • Care homes, especially those who have not allowed visits since March, will be encouraged and supported to provide safe visiting opportunities as new national restrictions come into effect
  • Measures put in place should provide COVID-secure opportunities for families to meet using visiting arrangements such as floor to ceiling screens, visiting pods, and window visits

All care home residents in England should be allowed to receive visits from their family and friends in a COVID-secure way – with social distancing and PPE – following new guidance to be used while national restrictions are in place from Thursday 5 November.

The guidance will enable care home providers, families and local professionals to work together to find the right balance between the benefits of visiting on wellbeing and quality of life, and the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to social care staff and vulnerable residents.

It will set out clear principles for how visits are conducted – with arrangements to be adapted from home to home, based on the needs of their residents and taking into consideration factors such as layout and facilities - and reiterates the importance of ensuring social distancing and proper PPE use is observed.

Options for safe care home visits in line with the guidance could include:

  • visits using COVID-secure visiting areas/pods with floor to ceiling screens and windows where the visitor and resident enter through different entrances, are separated by screens and visitors do not need to enter or pass through the care home
  • visits at windows, where the visitor doesn’t need to come inside the care home or where the visitor remains in their car, and the resident is socially distanced
  • outdoor visits with one other person – visitors can meet outside with a loved one, in areas which can be accessed without anyone going through a shared building
  • further support for virtual visits, encouraging the use of video calls

Plans are currently being developed to allow specific family and friends to visit care homes supported by testing. A sector-led group is overseeing the development of these plans with trials set to begin later this month.

A new national programme for weekly testing of professionals who regularly visit care homes, including community nurses and physiotherapists, will also be rolled out in the coming weeks following a successful pilot in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Northamptonshire.

The government is also working with providers to help them communicate to families and help them plan visits in a way that minimises the wider risks – for example, avoiding travelling to and from the home using public transport, or maintaining social distance from other families when they arrive at the home for their visit.

Visits outside of these principles should still be allowed in exceptional circumstances such as end of life.

Care homes should support the NHS Test and Trace system by keeping a temporary record, including address and phone number, of current and previous residents, staff and visitors as well as keeping track of visitor numbers and staff. It is recommended homes have an arrangement to enable bookings or appointments for visitors and ad hoc visits should not be permitted.

Protecting staff and residents has been a priority throughout the pandemic, with 120,000 tests being sent out every day solely for the care sector. The government has provided access to £3.7 billion for local authorities through un-ringfenced grants so they can address the expenditure pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including social care, as well as £1.1 billion provided to support infection control in care homes.

In addition, 11,000 iPad tablets, worth £7.5 million, will soon be distributed to thousands of care homes across England to help residents keep in touch with loved ones.

 

See Also

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

17 May: What’s changed You should continue to work from home if you can.

Coronavirus

  • Coronavirus
  • Red, amber and green list rules for entering England
  • Update on Covid-19 Testing: Home Testing Kits Available
  • Vaccine Passports
  • COVID Update, 29th May 2021
  • COVID Update, 8th May 2021
  • COVID Update, 25th April 2021
  • COVID Update, 17th April 2021
  • COVID Update, 10th April 2021
  • COVID Update, 27th March 2021
  • COVID Update, 20th March 2021
  • COVID Update, 13th March 2021
  • COVID Update, 6th March 2021
  • COVID Update, 20th February 2021
  • West Sussex COVID Update, 17th February 2021
  • People on Learning Disability Register invited for vaccination
  • Vaccine priority groups
  • When will I get my jab?
  • Support for local Adur and Worthing Businesses
  • New protections for renters over duration of national restrictions
  • Government extends Furlough until end of April 2021
  • Clinically extremely vulnerable receive updated guidance in line with new national restrictions
  • New guidance to support safe care home visits during lockdown
  • Government increases support for self-employed across the UK
  • Hands, Face, Space
  • NHS Test and Trace
  • Face coverings in education
  • Update on changes to Veterans UK Services
  • Help for Charities
  • New hotline launched to report COVID fraudsters
  • Winter Economy Plan
  • Support for Domestic Abuse Victims

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ConservativesPromoted by Cathy Perry on behalf of Leila Williams and the East Worthing and Shoreham Conservative Association both of Brooklands House, Malborough Rd, Lancing BN15 8AF.
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