Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 November 2020
The answer to the last part of Alex Cole-Hamilton’s question is yes. Care homes, care at home and adult social care—which goes much wider than elderly citizens, as it includes a range of residential settings, including supported accommodation and housing—will all be part of what we take into that summit, and I hope that we can have a productive four-nations discussion.
I completely understand the situation—as best I can—about care home relatives. I have met the care home relatives group, and I will continue to have discussions about what more we can do in addition to improving the visiting guidance and testing designated visitors, which I covered in my statement. What more can we do?
I have regular conversations with Donald Macaskill from Scottish Care and, of course, with colleagues from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities about how care home providers are feeling and what they need. Not so long ago, I had a long conversation with the owner of the Balhousie Care Group and others, and I will continue to have such conversations.
I said in my statement that we need to have detailed discussions with Scottish Care and the CCPS, which represent the majority of providers, about how we can help to reduce the movement of staff between shifts and care homes and between care homes and other settings. We need to consider how we can help care home providers to feel more confident in applying the visiting guidance. We also need to have discussions with the directors of public health, so that we get closer to providing tailored guidance for individual care homes. That is what I meant when I talked about local decision making.