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Public Petitions Committee 24 March 2021

24 Mar 2021 · S5 · Public Petitions Committee

Item of business

Continued Petitions

Care Homes (Designated Visitors) (PE1841)

Lamont, Johann Lab Glasgow Watch on SPTV

The final continued petition on our agenda is PE1841, which was lodged by Natasha Hamilton on behalf of the Care Home Relatives Scotland group. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to allow a designated visitor into care homes to support loved ones. We welcome Jackie Baillie back for our consideration of the petition. Since the last consideration of the petition, responses have been received from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, the national clinical director, the Care Home Relatives Scotland group, the petitioner and numerous other stakeholders who have an interest in the petition. In her submission, the cabinet secretary provided the committee with a copy of new guidance on care home visits, which was issued on 24 February 2021. The guidance recommends that care homes put in place the necessary arrangements to support safe, meaningful contact for up to two designated visitors per resident, twice a week. The national clinical director explains that, with the multiple levels of safeguards and protections in place, he is confident that safe, indoor visiting can resume. He further explains that everyone living in adult care homes, no matter their age, health, or otherwise, can have meaningful contact with their families and loved ones. In its submission of 15 March, the Care Home Relatives Scotland group advises that, in its recent survey, 58.4 per cent of respondents reported that meaningful visits had started as per the 24 February guidelines, whereas 41.5 per cent answered that they had not. The Care Home Relatives Scotland group states that its survey results demonstrate the “inequality that is happening to care home residents and their families across the country despite having guidance”. The petitioner, in her personal submission, has explained how the restrictions have personally affected her and her family as well as highlighting more generally the negative effect that they have had on people living in care homes. She states that there has been “So much focus on keeping people like my relative safe but who knows at what detrimental effect”. I will invite Jackie Baillie to speak in a moment. It is a difficult and emotive issue. I have heard very strongly from the petitioners that they do not want us to feel sorry but want us to act; everyone always says how difficult and problematic the issue is and how sorry they feel, but I understand that the petitioners want action. The petitioners also want the gap between what the guidance says and what is happening to be closed. Their argument is that that would involve legislation. Parliament is closing for the campaign, so there is no prospect of legislation in the short term. The fastest way to get a commitment to legislation would be by pressing political parties to make it a manifesto commitment. Regardless of whether we decide to continue the petition or close it, the decisions and immediate pressure will come from elsewhere—that has to be the case because it is so immediate. The figures in the submission on people who describe their contact as not matching up to the guidance are very powerful.