Responding to our consultation on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices

Introduction

In January 2024, we consulted on our proposed guidance to help providers and other stakeholders understand and meet the new fundamental standard on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals, and hospices and their roles and responsibilities under it.

The guidance also sets out what people using health and social care services and their families, friends or advocates can expect.

The consultation ran between 9 January and 20 February 2024. We published our draft guidance on our website and invited members of the public and providers, their representatives, and other stakeholders to give us their feedback through our online form or easy read.

We also held meetings with particular groups of people identified in our equality impact assessment who may have been less able to access the consultation due to accessibility needs and for whom the guidance may have a particular impact, as well as other stakeholder groups.

We promoted the consultation through our website and on social media, and through emails and bulletins to members of the public, providers and other stakeholders.

Our consultation was limited to our guidance about the new fundamental standard. It does not cover the scope and content of the visiting legislation itself, which was subject to the government’s own, separate consultation during summer 2023, which found that most people supported the proposal to introduce a fundamental standard on visiting and being accompanied on appointments that providers must meet.