London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

You can still visit family in care homes under new lockdown rules

You can still visit family in care homes under new lockdown rules

Close family and friends will be allowed to visit their loved ones at care homes under England’s second national lockdown.

Downing Street’s clampdown comes into force from midnight tonight, banning people from leaving their homes other than for a specific set of reasons listed by the Government.

One of those exceptions is to ‘visit a person receiving medial treatment in a hospital or staying in a hospital or a care home’.

Regulations say this visitor should be a member of their household, a close family member or a friend.

However the Government’s new guidelines encourages visits to remain outdoors, or through windows, in order to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus.

It comes after a group of 60 organisations, researchers, and professionals wrote an open letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock claiming denying visits denies residents their human rights.

Brought together by the National Care Forum, they said a blanket ban would be ‘intrinsically harmful’ and causes ‘extreme anguish’ and that the ‘default position’ should be that care homes are open for visiting with mitigation measures.


Close family and friends will still be able to visit under new regulation


Care homes will be ‘encouraged and supported to provide safe visiting opportunities’, although so-called ‘ad-hoc’ visits will not be allowed, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

In its guidance, issued less than 12 hours before new lockdown measures are introduced, the DHSC cited a number of ways care homes could allow visitors, including having designated visitor pods with floor-to-ceiling screens and separate entrances.

Outdoor visits with one other person will be permitted, provided the area can be accessed by the loved one without going into the main building.

It also approved visits at windows, ‘where the visitor doesn’t need to come inside the care home or where the visitor remains in their car, and the resident is socially distanced’.

The DHSC said it is encouraging the use of video calls between residents and family members, supported by a multimillion-pound distribution of 11,000 iPad devices to care homes.

It said plans are currently being developed to allow specific family and friends to visit care homes supported by a testing programme, although trials will not begin until later this month.

A new national programme for weekly testing of professionals who regularly visit care homes, including community nurses and physiotherapists, will also be rolled out in the coming weeks following a successful local pilot, the Government said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘Care homes should feel empowered by this new guidance to look at safe options to allow visits to care homes that suit their residents and facilities.

‘We’ve seen some really innovative solutions used to help families see each other safely, face-to-face, which has been life-changing for some.


The Government is encouraging conversations through car windows to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19


‘It is vital high-quality, compassionate care and infection control remains at the heart of every single care home to protect staff and residents’ lives, but we must allow families to reunite in the safest way possible.’

The guidance said that ‘all care home residents in England should be allowed to receive visits from their family and friends in a Covid-secure way’ during the lockdown.

Chief executive officer at the Alzheimer’s Society Kate Lee said the guidance ‘completely misses the point’ for those with dementia and their families.

She said: ‘The prison-style screens the Government proposes – with people speaking through phones – are frankly ridiculous when you consider someone with advanced dementia can often be bed-bound and struggling to speak.

‘They won’t understand and will be distressed by what’s going on around them.

‘Aside from the naive assumption that care homes have the resource, the space and time to build these screens, distraught families will read this news and despair.’

Chief executive of care home provider Care England called for greater clarity on visits.

He said: ‘We are really upset that a proper policy has not been published in time when a second lockdown was always on the cards.’

Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Boris Johnson of concerns ‘about the emotional wellbeing of those in care homes, and their families, if all visits are stopped’.

He added: ‘It must be possible to find a way… to allow some safe visits, to alleviate the huge fears of isolation and despair across the coming months.’

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
×