Care homes breaching human rights with blanket bans on visits, MPs say

Cross-party committee calls for new law to protect right to family life

Some care homes have been imposing blanket bans on visits (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The government should make it illegal for care homes to impose blanket bans on visits in the name of Covid-19, a cross party group of MPs has said.

MPs on parliament’s human rights committee said it was “completely unacceptable” for care homes to deny residents access to their families even when risks were low, and said the approach breached human rights.

The committee has drawn up a draft statutory instrument that would change the law around visits and secure legal protection to ensure elderly residents are not left isolated.

Under the plan, care providers would have to carry out an individualised risk assessment on whether any given visit was safe.

New government guidance recommends this approach, but the MPs argue that it needs to be put into law to give residents legal recourse.

“The government’s guidance does not have statutory force – it is not underpinned by legislation,” the parliamentarians say.

“As such, many care home providers are arguing that it is not yet safe to follow the guidance, denying care home residents these important family links as part of their right to family life. This is completely unacceptable.

Harriet Harman, who chairs the committee, said care staff were doing “an incredible job in difficult circumstances”.

But she added: “For far too many families and their loved ones in residential care homes, the pandemic has been utterly heart-breaking because of the breach of the right to family life. It has been a powerful reminder of why the right to family life is so important.

“The government has listened to recommendations from this committee and other that restrictions on visiting rights must be only be implemented on the basis of an individualised risk assessment which takes into account the risks to the resident’s physical and mental wellbeing of not having visits. By not underpinning this guidance in law, care homes have not felt bound by it and important rights have therefore not been respected.”

Ms Harman argued that the Care Quality Commission's assurances that visits were being allowed properly in all homes was “wholly unconvincing”.

“Because care homes see guidance about allowing visits as advisory rather than binding, the government must now bring forward regulations to give their guidance on visits legal force.”

It comes as campaigners warn that some people living in care homes are facing “perpetual isolation” because of government policy.

The group John’s Campaign said a separate requirement to self-isolate for 14 days after leaving some visits was leading residents to forego healthcare visits.

The government updated its guidance on this matter over the weekend, but the new freedoms do not cover visits for medical appointments or overnight stays with family members.

Ministers and officials have put strict measures in place on care homes, which were hotspots early on the in the pandemic and whose residents are particularly vulnerable.

John’s Campaign co-founder Julia Jones said the 14-day isolation period should be “consigned to history's bin of shame”.

“No one is helped to feel better, stronger or happier by being isolated for 14 days and it’s patently ludicrous – as well as cruel – to make this the penalty for a visit to hospital outpatient department, an optician or a dentist,” she said.

“If these places are not safe for people who live in care homes (who have the highest rate of vaccination and antibody protection), they are not safe for anyone.”

The campaign has threatened to take legal action and says the policy encourages care providers to act unlawfully by “falsely imprisoning” residents.