Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the proposal by One Dementia Voice of designating relatives of care home residents as key workers in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

In the face of a new variant of the virus we have had to act to protect those most at risk in care homes and ensure visits can continue safely in some form. All care homes, except in the event of an active outbreak, should seek to enable outdoor visiting and ‘screened’ visits. Close-contact visits supported by testing are not currently enabled.

As always, visits in exceptional circumstances such as end of life should always be supported and enabled