Lockdown roadmap ‘must include care home visits by 1 March’

A group of leading care organisations have called on the government to resume care home visits by 1 March.

National Care Forum (NCF), Age UK, Relatives and Residents Association, John’s Campaign, Rights for Residents and the Registered Nursing Homes Association said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap for easing the national lockdown on 22 February must include reuniting families with their loved ones in care homes.

NCF executive director Vic Rayner (pictured) said all care homes should be better supported to enable meaningful visits.

“Many family members quite understandably want to be reunited with their loved ones as soon as possible and this must be a priority in the roadmap to ease out of the lockdown," she added.

"If dates have been set for the opening of bars and pubs, restaurants, schools and other industries, then the same effort and resolve must be given to opening up care homes to reunite families."

Rayner continued: “Providers have worked incredibly hard to keep visiting as available as possible through the strictures of ever-changing guidance, and this is a moment where we pull out all the stops to make visiting happen.”