Evidence to Parliamentary Group

R&RA’s director has outlined how older people’s human rights continue to be infringed in care settings. Speaking at the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People, Helen Wildbore set out how the Government’s neglect of the care sector had undermined the rights of care users and staff early on in the pandemic.

People in care face discrimination, living under restrictions on fundamental everyday decisions

Now, the Government has swung dramatically to the other extreme, imposing severe restrictions on movement in and out of care homes for residents and their families with devastating impact. As restrictions were lifted across England in July, people in care continue to live under draconian guidance on what contact they can have with those most important in their lives. The disparity of treatment has become vast.

R&RA also raised concerns about the “alarming lack of oversight in care homes” and about closed cultures becoming embedded in some care settings. R&RA encouraged the Parliamentary Group to raise these issues with the Government to push for change to ensure rights are respected and to end isolation in care.