UPDATE: Following the recent news and the move into Tier 4 for Buckinghamshire, we are reviewing our visitor policy and will communicate with relatives on Monday 21 December.
Any planned visits on Sunday 20 December can go ahead although we would recommend meeting outside where possible.

We are keeping our Safe Visitor Policy under review in light of the ever changing situation in our area. We continued to facilitate safe visits in our homes and services throughout lockdown, supported by a dynamic risk assessment. From this weekend we will extend this further. 

Visits may take place in a visitor room, in a designated area, in the garden or, in some circumstances, in a resident’s bedroom. As before, we ask visitors to wash their hands, to wear PPE and to restrict their movements within the home.  Please do not visit if you or a member of your household is unwell. 

Visits will normally be 30 minutes long, unless there are special circumstances. Visits will normally be restricted to two people, unless there are special circumstances. Please make an appointment before you visit. The Home Manager will do their best to accommodate the number of visits that you wish to make each week.

Update on rapid testing

You may have heard about rapid testing for visitors in the news, however there are some drawbacks with these tests. We do not propose to use these Rapid Lateral Flow tests as we understand that they are unreliable and have a significant number of false negatives. This could give a false sense of security for people who test negative but may still be infectious. Furthermore, we currently do not have access to these tests in the majority of our homes and services, nor the staffing levels to administer them.

We hope that our positive approach to visits, which is based on individual risk assessments, works for you. We will continue to facilitate video and telephone calls for everyone too. 

Christmas Visits

We are looking at how we manage increased visits at Christmas. If your relative wishes to come home for Christmas we will do our best to work with you to manage that safely based on an individual risk assessment. We will expect residents to self-isolate when they return from a visit home, supported by testing for the virus on their return.

If you want to discuss visiting or arrangements for Christmas then please speak to the home or service manager. You can also contact me directly to comment on the policy and approach. If you have a general enquiry you can contact us on enquiries@fremantletrust.org or 0333 0058735.