The closest Allison Major will come to
celebrating Christmas with her father is
when she drops off his presents outside
the door to his care home in Gateshead.
Basil Bosworth, 94, is one of many care
home residents facing a second Christ-
mas without family as Omicron sweeps
the country. His home is stopping all vis-
its over Christmas and new year, telling
families that it is fairer to have one rule as
the volume of visitors would put resi-
dents at risk.
Official guidance is that all residents —
unless they have Covid — should be
allowed up to three regular visitors as
well as one person designated as an
“essential care-giver” who has full access,
even in an outbreak.
But as Omicron threatens already
threadbare staffing levels, many homes
are refusing to allow visitors. Care homes
are acutely aware of the potential for
catastrophe after more than 41,000 resi-
dents died with Covid in the first two
waves of the pandemic. In the first wave,
infected patients were discharged from
hospitals into care homes and visitors
were allowed in untested, causing out-
breaks to race through the homes.
Major, 50, saw her father every day
before he was discharged from hospital
to a care home in March last year.
“The biggest fear that I have is that it
could be his last Christmas. He’s been in
there less than two years but he’s aged
ten years. It’s just because he hasn’t been
loved. He hasn’t been hugged. He’s just
sat in that room.”
It was only two weeks ago that she was
allowed into his room for the first time
since he moved into the home. While visi-
tors are being kept away over the festive
period, Major said the home told her he
could come to her for Christmas but she
felt this was not a viable option. He is deaf
and blind with limited mobility and he
found his last visit so distressing that she
is worried about upsetting him.
“They’re just saying it’s too risky [to
have visitors] because of the new variant
... But he can come to my house with
however many people are here. It just
makes absolutely no sense.”
The Care Quality Commission has
received 54 reports of blanket bans on
visiting at care homes, 19 of them in the
past six months. Kate Terroni, the com-
mission’s chief inspector of adult social
care, said: “We have received reports that
with her, but has been turned down.
Upton said his wife had deteriorated
since he was unable to visit her daily.
“She’s lost over 2½ stone in the year and a
bit that I haven’t been able to feed her and
make sure she’s hydrated. The manager
says that’s what happens when you have
Alzheimer’s, which is of course a load of
baloney but there’s not a lot I can do.”
Many homes have been struggling for
months to fill posts as Brexit meant they
could no longer recruit easily from
Europe. They say they do not receive
enough money per resident from local
authorities to increase salaries to carers,
which might make the jobs more attract-
ive to British workers. Yesterday the
Department for Health and Social Care
said it had pledged £1.4 billion over three
years to help increase the amount that
local authorities can pay to care homes.
A survey by Care England found nearly
96 per cent of providers were struggling
to recruit staff.
Geoff Butcher, chief executive of
Blackadder Corporation, which runs six
homes in the West Midlands, said the
latest guidance on care home visits was
“unbelievable”.
A manager of a nursing home for
adults with brain and spinal injuries said
staff levels were so dire that she had
drafted in cleaners as carers but still
could not make the numbers add up. She
has restricted visits to just one nominated
individual and been inundated with com-
plaints. She said: “I feel heartbroken see-
ing my residents and I feel I’m managing
a prison and not a care home.”Vital mock exams
face cancellation
Mock exams for GCSE and
A-levels, due to take place
next month, have been put in
jeopardy by soaring Covid
infections among pupils and
teachers.
Schools have been asked
to hold three sets of mock
exams in class to provide
evidence of pupil
performance on which to
award grades if national
exams are scrapped next
summer for a third year.
If they are cancelled, it
would mean the class of 2022
would leave having never sat
a public exam at secondary
school, having missed their
GCSEs in 2020 and their
A-levels in 2022.
Steve Chalke, co-founder
of the Oasis academy trust,
which has 52 schools, said the
trust had prepared letters to
parents covering mock
exams, moving to remote
lessons and wearing masks in
classrooms.
“We do not know whether
we will be going back in
January let alone whether we
will be doing mocks,” Chalke
said. “This situation is
developing day to day. If the
worst predictions come true
we are going to be in a terrible
mess by mid-January.”
Last year GCSEs and
A-levels were scrapped soon
after the start of the spring
term in a government U-turn
as the country went into
lockdown. This weekend
head teachers called for quick
decisions and clear guidance
as the uncertainty is
disruptive for teachers and
pupils.
Jules White, head of
Tanbridge House in
Horsham, West Sussex, who
is also leader of the Worth
Less? group of 2,000 heads,
said: “Unlike in previous
times, schools will need
guidance and direction that is
both pragmatic and
manageable. Parents and
students have a right to have
a clear direction of travel.
“It is impossible to see how
the new surge in infections
will not have a profound
impact upon schools.
“We are already seeing
evidence of increasing
numbers of students having
to isolate and the same goes
for staff. This means that all
of the fundamental work of
schools will be put under
even more duress including
disruption to exam
preparation.”
Last week, more than
236,000 pupils were absent
because of Covid and 2.1 per
cent of teachers, the
Department for Education
(DfE) said.
The BBC reported that 35
councils said some classes
had already moved lessons
online last week as a result of
rising Covid rates.
The government has asked
retired teachers to volunteer
to cover expected staff
shortages in schools next
term. The head teachers’
union, the NAHT, said the
government’s plea “sends a
clear signal that we could be
talking about a very different
type of education at the start
of next year, which has huge
implications for things like
exams and assessment”.
Molly Kingsley, of the
parenting campaign group
UsForThem, said: “Parents
are distraught about the
prospect of any further
disruption to schooling in the
spring term, including
disruption to exams. Lots of
pupils have been asked to
take laptops and books home.
Parents are really upset by
this. It is horrible for these
children having to live with
this uncertainty.”
The DfE said: “As a last
resort, there are contingency
plans if exams can’t happen
but we’re nowhere near that
being the case at the
moment.”Sian Griffiths
Education Editor
Major and her father must spend their Christmas apartThis week’s
question:Have you
dropped plans to
see elderly
relatives this
Christmas?Have your say at
sundaytimes.co.
uk/pollsome care homes have been issuing
‘general policy’ related to visiting. We
expect providers to follow government
guidance on visiting. This clearly sets out
that all care home residents can choose
to nominate an essential care-giver who
may visit the home to attend to essential
care needs.”
As Omicron continues to spread, care
homes already limping by without
enough staff face impossible decisions.
Less than 38 per cent of care home staff
have had their booster vaccination,
according to official data on Friday. Since
last month, only double-vaccinated care
staff are allowed to work in homes, exac-
erbating growing staffing problems.
Kath Thompson, 62, was told last week
that her mother Eunice, 89, was no
longer allowed out for a family Christmas
lunch, even though all six guests were
triple-jabbed, because of an outbreak at
her care home.
Thompson, who lives in Spennymoor,
Co Durham, said: “I was told, ‘Oh by the
way, do you know we’re a red home now?
Your mum won’t be able to come home
for Christmas.’ And I burst into tears.“Christmas Day has been arranged
around our mum being there. She’s the
last of that generation left in our family.
Who knows whether she’ll be here next
Christmas?”
Diane Mayhew, co-founder of the
Rights for Residents campaign group,
believes care homes should be doing
more. “For many of these people, this
Christmas is their last. We already know
that the lifespan of a care home resident
is at most two years and we’ve been
through the pandemic and lost 19 months
already. Everybody else in society will be
sitting down to Christmas dinner unen-
cumbered, able to invite whoever they
want to their house. Yet people who live
in care have their human rights taken
away from them.”
John Upton, 73, used to visit his wife
Sylvia, 77, every day in her care home in
Dover, where she has lived since 2018
after her Alzheimer’s became unmanage-
able. Now he is allowed in only twice a
week for an hour — and then not in her
room. He asked to be given essential care-
giver status, which would mean he could
see her every day and have time alone‘It’s like I’m managing a
prison, not a care home’
A staffing crisis is forcing
some homes to ignore
official guidance and
deny families the right to
visit their loved ones
Emily Dugan
Social Affairs Correspondent
Who
knows if
she’ll be
here
next
year?
9 The Sunday Times December 19, 2021
CORONAVIRUS