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Publication - Advice and guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19): social care and community based testing guidance

Last updated 15 September 2022 - see all updates
Part of
Coronavirus in Scotland, Health and social care

Guidance on coronavirus testing for the social care sector.

This document is part of a collection

Test kit supply and delivery

Asymptomatic testing for the community

As this ceases, tests will no longer be available from pharmacies and test centres.

Queries about test supply and stocks

Call the helpline on 0800 008 6587 (Open daily from 9am to 5pm)

If you have excess stock you can call the helpline to pause delivery

Urgent requests for test kits

If you do need further LFD test kits for staff who are symptomatic then these can be requested from NSS by emailing the following address nss.covid19testorderrequests@nhs.scot

If PCR/multiplex testing kits are recommended through local health protection for outbreaks of for symptomatic testing of residents, then these will be provided locally – PCR and multiplex tests are not available from NSS.

Please include:

  • Service Number (CS200XXXXXXX)
  •  Number of staff
  •  The nature of the urgent request (e.g. outbreak, stock depleted due to a specific reason)
  • If you are experiencing an outbreak, please add OUTBREAK in the email subject line, confirm you have been in touch with your local Health Protection, and the  current remaining number of Lateral Flow devices for staff daily testing

Review training materials

We strongly encourage all staff to review the training materials prior to using the kits.  

First published
14 April 2022
Last updated
15 September 2022 - show all updates

  1. Updated and addition of a link to a letter

  2. PDFs unpublished as content was outdated.

  3. Updated to include the April 2022 changes inc supply, testing and recording results

  4. Updated Test supply, delivery and enhanced testing for the sector.

  5. Updated to reflect current situation with Omicron variant.

  6. FAQs updated.

  7. Updated COVID-19 social care testing - Orient Gene webinar slides: September 2021 and main text.

  8. Minor update to remove sentence re. testing webinars.

  9. All sections updated and new documents added to Sector updates, Training and Guidance.

  10. Document added under Sector letters and updates

  11. Updated LFD testing guidance PDF and testing FAQs PDFs published.

  12. Updates to main page, added larger delivery of stock and updated LFD registration form to sector letters, invitation to provide feedback on later flow testing in social care letter (sector letters section) taken offline, infection prevention and control care at home webinars (training section) taken offline.

  13. Revised page title to: social care and community based testing guidance

  14. Added updated information for providers who use the NSS portal to register testing kits, 20 May 2021.

  15. PCR guidance and overview page updated

  16. Overview pages updated and new edition of FAQs included.

  17. Amended page text and added 2 replacement pdfs and 3 new pdfs inc updated FAQs

  18. Updated FAQs

  19. Self testing training slides added as well as a sector update on LFD bulk uploads and logging results.

  20. Content updated to reflect latest position.

  21. Testing FAQs added.

  22. Page content and FAQ and LFD testing guidance updated.

  23. Page title, content and FAQ updated.

  24. Updated sector letters, guidance docs and delivery dates.

  25. Link to guidance added - testing arrangements for care at home and and care home settings.

  26. Links to additional training resources added.

  27. Revised FAQ and LFD staff testing guides.

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