Gloria’s Law

Pledge your support for our demand for a new legal right to a Care Supporter

As lockdown showed us, all too often the rights of people in care are up for grabs.

People were isolated from their loved ones for weeks or months on end. Deprived of their liberty, they couldn’t see friends or family – often with devastating results for their health and wellbeing.

We need a change in law to give ALL of us a new right to a Care Supporter. Called ‘Gloria’s Law’, after the mother of Rights For Residents Ambassador and actor, Ruthie Henshall. It would ensure we’ll always have access to a close friend or relative who can provide support, advocacy and essential human contact. We need to protect ourselves from being completely cut off from loved ones when we are receiving care, in health or care settings, including hospitals and care homes.

While the Care Minister has agreed that change is needed, things have since gone quiet. We must keep up the momentum, so we need your support to get it over the line!

We are fighting for Gloria’s Law in the name of Ruthie’s mum and all others who deserve a better quality of life.

Add your voice by taking our pledge.

Let’s ensure that people needing care never face harmful isolation again.

‘Why are we fighting for the most vulnerable? They should be the first in line for love and care. Don't let one more person live and die alone.’

– Ruthie Henshall (Rights For Residents Ambassador)

Actress Ruthie Henshall still lives with the harrowing images of her mum, Gloria, declining from the other side of a closed window. When Ruthie eventually got in to the care home to see her mum, the time they had left together was short.

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Count me in – I support Gloria’s Law, a new legal right to a Care Supporter.

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  • 'Like Ruthie I am also living with that nightmare experience. My gentle and generous Dad died within a few months, without our love, support and advocacy. He was isolated and neglected in an understaffed, under-resourced care home and the family had no power to alleviate his suffering. Not even the CQC could check what was going on. It was inhuman and intolerable.'

  • 'This law is extremely important. We need legislation to protect people from the extreme neglect that was carried out in the name of 'protecting them from dying' during the Covid pandemic. We have hopefully learned that life is about more than just 'not dying'!'

  • 'Lack of family contact contributed to my mother's decline and eventual death during the Covid pandemic.'

  • 'We are haunted by the impact of the restrictions families faced and are appalled that in some care homes these are still continuing. Never again!'

  • 'I am signing for my Mum who was deprived of months of contact with us during the pandemic, which meant that we could not make the most of her final years. It was so cruel, especially when it continued once vaccinations came in.'

  • ‘It is a sad state of affairs when we have to campaign for a Law which should be a basic Human Right. I can’t see how anyone can disagree. There should be no hold up to making this Law, but the fact that there is, is a sad indictment on the Government of this Country.’

  • ‘I will never forget the horror and emotional turmoil I felt at not being allowed to see my husband during lockdown.Because he had Alzheimer’s , I’m sure he felt I had abandoned him. He died two weeks ago and I am truly bereft, but my grief is made much worse by reliving those weeks and months of us being separated, and of my anger at constantly being refused entry into the care home. Months spent phoning and writing to care providers, the CQC and MPs, begging to see my husband, all to no avail.’