Publication - Advice and guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19): adult care homes visiting guidance

Last updated: 2 Feb 2022 - see all updates

Published: 24 Feb 2021

Directorate:: Chief Medical Officer Directorate, +1 more … Chief Nursing Officer Directorate
Part of:: Coronavirus in Scotland, Health and social care

Guidance on visiting during the pandemic plus tools and resources on visiting, and supporting residents in homes with COVID-19.

Published:: 24 Feb 2021

Coronavirus (COVID-19): adult care homes visiting guidance

Minimising the risk of transmission over the winter period and the Omicron variant

Throughout December 2021 and January 2022 a number of updates have been issued to the care home sector regarding protective measures in response to the Covid-19 Omicron variant, including for visiting, guidance for self-isolation for health and social care staff and self-isolation periods for care home residents. All guidance included in the letters issued in this period has been combined into one guidance page. This page is reviewed regularly to remove any guidance that is no longer in place to ensure it is up to date and reflective of the current measures in place in adult care homes in response to the omicron variant.

Public Health Scotland Covid-19 Adult Care Home guidance has also recently been updated to reflect all guidance changes including visiting during outbreaks and self-isolation periods for residents and care home staff.

Visiting guidance

Open with Care: supporting meaningful contact in care homes was launched in 24 February 2021, to provide guidance to support the resumption of meaningful contact between care home residents and their loved ones. Protective measures in adult care homes and guidance to support visiting has been reviewed and updated regularly since the launch of Open with Care. This has included:

publishing and updating supplementary information on visiting in response to frequently asked questions
guidance on residents’ outings away from the care home
communal activities within care homes
updates to protective measures in response to the Covid-19 Omicron Variant
the launch of “named visitors” who can visit when routine visiting has been paused such as during an outbreak to minimise the impact of self-isolation
and most recently ( 19 January 2022) a further letter was sent to adult care homes to emphasise and provide further clarity on the implementation of named visitors

Public Health Scotland has also updated all of the guidance in relation to the above in its Covid-19 Guidance for Adult Care Homes.

Visiting professionals into care homes and communal activities

It is recommended that visiting professionals should visit adult care homes if required to do so unless advised otherwise by the local health protection team or the care home. This included visits by health and social care professionals, holistic and spiritual care professionals and others, such as site contractors, maintenance and health and safety personnel. We sent a letter to the sector on 2 December 2021 advising this. This letter and position is an update on advice published, 14 April 2021. The advice is also contained in Public Health Scotland’s COVID-19 information and guidance for care home settings (adults and older people).

Letters to the sector and additional supporting information

Letter to adult care homes regarding visiting and omicron – 22 December 2021

File type: 7 page PDF; 400.3 kB

Accessibility links

Information

Minimising the risk of transmission over the winter period and the Omicron variant

Visiting guidance

Visiting professionals into care homes and communal activities

Letters to the sector and additional supporting information

Infographics and resources

About this guidance

Contact

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