Care home residents and staff were failed during the early stages of the pandemic, with the adult social care sector treated as “something of an afterthought” despite the extreme vulnerability of those living and working in care settings, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded.
Publishing its findings on the impact of Covid-19 on adult social care, inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett said the repeated government claim that a “protective ring” had been placed around care homes did not accurately reflect the reality faced by providers in the first weeks of the pandemic.
The report found that care homes received “insufficient protection at the time they most needed it”, allowing Covid-19 to spread rapidly through settings housing some of the people most at risk from severe illness and death.
Around 43,000 deaths involving Covid-19 were recorded in care homes during the first two years of the pandemic, from March 2020 to July 2022, according to the inquiry.
Baroness Hallett said: “At the critical early stages of the pandemic, not enough was done to protect those living and working in care homes.
“The mantra at the time of ‘protecting the NHS’ sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care.”
She added that the adult social care sector “appeared to be something of an afterthought” and that failures identified by the inquiry “created environments in which the virus could spread like wildfire”.
Changes "should not wait" for Casey review
A key finding of the report concerns the discharge of hospital patients into care homes during spring 2020. The inquiry said there was initially no policy requiring patients to be tested before discharge and no requirement for asymptomatic individuals to isolate in care settings until mid-April 2020.
Baroness Hallett said the government’s recognition of the risks facing care home residents “came too late”.
The report also concluded that public policy and decision-making during the early phase of the pandemic prioritised protecting NHS capacity, while the care sector lacked equivalent influence within government structures.
Closing the report, Baroness Hallett said lessons must be learned from the experience of care homes during Covid-19 to ensure residents, families and staff are better protected during any future public health emergency.
And in a letter sent to the Prime Minister alongside the report, which she described as setting out the "devastating impact of the pandemic on the millions of people receiving adult social care and the many millions more who dedicate themselves to providing that care" she said her recommendations " do not need to wait and should not wait" for Baroness Casey's adult social care review proposals on long-term reform.
"The users and providers of adult social care services deserve better and they deserve better now," she added.
The Government said in March that it is co-developing an action plan with the sector to be published next year aimed at improving the resilience and preparedness of the adult social care workforce, as part of its wider pandemic strategy.
