A survey of National Care Forum (NCF) members has found fewer than a quarter of staff displaying Covid-19 symptoms have been tested despite a government commitment for care workers.
The representative body survey represented the perspectives of a wide range of organisations who between them employ 31,262 staff.
Of those, 6,469 were identified as being a priority for testing due to having symptoms and attempts were made to get them tested. Less than a quarter - 1,436 - were tested, equivalent to 22% of respondents.
The NCF figures are in contrast to the government’s Social Care Action Plan published on 15 April that made a commitment to roll out testing of care workers.
The government’s promise is “not being met”, said the NCF, which bamed the government’s self-referral testing portal for which there is no prioritisation of social care workers.
“Our survey shows that the employer portal is not working for social care employers. Using this route, only 2% (138 out of 6469) of staff were able to receive a test at drive-through centres, with no home testing being available on the system via this route,” it said in a statement.
“There is a significant manual backlog in the system, which means that large numbers of providers seeking to access testing via this route are not yet even entered onto the system, and there is no prioritisation for social care employers,” it added.
The NCF called for the prioritisation of social care employers through the portal to ensure they have a strategic and targeted prioritization of all their employees – regardless of symptoms as previously promised by the government and for social care workers to be given priority status on the self-referral portal.
NCF executive director Vic Rayner (pictured) said: “The government’s promise to provide tests for all staff is exposed as pure words. Social care needs to be systematically prioritised in each and every testing system, in order for government to live up to its commitment.”
