Anne's Law - code of practice: easy read

Chapter 3: Visiting Suspensions

Introduction to Chapter 3

Sometimes there are difficult situations such as an outbreak of infectious disease.

In difficult situations there are different ways care homes can protect people living there.

This can allow visiting to continue safely. This might include:

• people visiting at different times
• using things like masks and gloves to protect people

Professionals can offer advice to care homes to keep people safe.

Suspension of visiting

Care homes can only stop visiting in special situations which don’t happen very often.

Visiting can only be stopped if there is a risk to life, health or wellbeing.

Visits must only be stopped for a short time.

Spending time with friends and family is important.

If family or friends cannot visit this can cause harm to the health or wellbeing of a person living in a care home.

It can also hurt their family and friends.

Care homes should take advice from other professionals when making decisions about stopping visits.

If the decision is taken to stop visiting it must be to stop a serious risk to people’s lives, health or wellbeing.

It should be for as short a time as possible.

Care homes should tell people that they are stopping visits as soon as possible.

This is covered in Chapter 4: Communication and Notifications.

If visits stop, the care home should find other ways for people to stay in touch with loved ones. This might be by using:

• phone calls
• video calls

Essential visits

Even when visits are stopped, some visits can go ahead. These are known as Essential Visits.

Essential visits can go ahead if the following happens to a person living in a care home:

• their health gets or might get a lot worse
• they might die

Care homes must also allow visits if:

• they think that stopping visits may cause serious harm to the health or wellbeing of a person living in care home

• this would be worse than the serious risk which meant visits had to be stopped

Serious harm to a person living in a care home’s health or wellbeing could include:

• serious changes to their health

• big changes to the things that they can do, like no longer being able to dress, walk or feed themselves

• important changes to their mental health, like feeling very upset or sad

To help the care home make a decision about visiting, they can ask:

• medical professionals, such as a nurse or a doctor
• friends and family

When essential visiting happens, people must follow rules set by care homes to keep them safe. This includes people:

• living in a care home
• visiting a care home

Essential Care Supporters

An Essential Care Supporter is someone important to a person living in a care home. It is likely that it would cause harm if the person living in the care home was not able to see them.

The law says that care homes must identify an Essential Care Supporter(s) for any person living in a care home who would like one.

Identified Essential Care Supporters must want to and be able to be an Essential Care Supporter.

An Essential Care Supporter:

• can be anyone important to the person living in a care home
• gives support to the person in the care home

Some people may choose not to have an Essential Care Supporter.

Sometimes it may not be possible to find someone to be a person’s Essential Care Supporter.

Identification of an Essential Care Supporter

A person living in a care home can choose who they want to be their Essential Care Supporter(s) with support from:

• their family or friends
• the care home

There is no limit to the number of Essential Care Supporters that a person can choose.

If the person living in a care home has a representative, they should be included in the discussion.

A representative is any person who can legally act on behalf of the person living in a care home.

People living in care homes have a personal plan.

Some personal plans say that family or friends must be asked about their care.

The care home must speak to these people too.

The personal plan should include information about a person’s Essential Care Supporter(s).

The personal plan can also include who the person living in a care home likes to visit and who is important to them.

A person must not be chosen as an Essential Care Supporter if the care home believes they might cause harm to the person living in a care home.

This could include:

• threatening or abusive behaviour
• causing distress or fear where the person living in a care home feels very upset, scared or their wellbeing gets worse

Any decisions must follow the law including the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007.

Visiting and essential care supporters

Most of the time, visits with an Essential Care Supporter are the same as visits with anyone else.

This is because Anne’s Law says people living in care homes should stay connected with:

• their family
• friends
• their community

Anne’s Law says that stopping visits with an Essential Care Supporter is likely to cause serious harm to a person living in a care home.

Visits with Essential Care Supporters should only stop in rare cases.

Examples of this could include a new or very dangerous infectious disease.