On Monday 30th June the UK Covid-19 Inquiry is set to hold public hearings for its next phase which will scrutinise how the adult social care sector was treated during the pandemic.
Spoiler alert: it was far from satisfactory.
What is the Covid inquiry?
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry was launched by former prime minister Boris Johnson in June 2022, and it was created to investigate how well our government, and country as a whole, responded to the global pandemic.
It was decided the inquiry should be set up after the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group threatened to launch a judicial review over government ‘time-wasting’, following Mr Johnson’s refusal to hand over some of his WhatsApps from his time in office.
The first public hearings took place in London, a year after the inquiry was first announced, and subsequent hearings have also been held in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Though a public hearing can’t actually find people guilty, the discoveries made so far are enough to make your blood boil.
Former judge and crossbench peer Baroness Heather Hallett DBE is the chair of the inquiry, which is spilt into ten modules. So far, six modules have been covered which have examined multiple factors including vaccines and how well systems were equipped to deal with the pandemic.
The first report ‘Resilience and preparedness of the UK‘ that included findings from the inquiry was published in July 2024 and its contents, to say the least, are heartbreaking. The 240-page document ultimately argued that the UK planned for the wrong pandemic – a mild one where spread of a new virus was inevitable and this led to the ‘untested’ policy of lockdown.
Against this backdrop, Baroness Hallet concluded that the UK was ‘ill-prepared for dealing with a catastrophic emergency, let alone the coronavirus pandemic.’ She also said that ‘never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering’.
The next phase
From the beginning of next week (Monday 30th June) the inquiry is set to launch its next phase which prioritises the care sector. Here, experts will look at how the pandemic affected adult social care services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Links to watch the public hearings, which are estimated to last around five weeks, are due to be live on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry website and on their YouTube channel.
News the inquiry is concentrating on the care sector has been welcomed, though some industry experts remain cautious. Particularly members of The Independent Care Group (ICG). The not-for-profit organisation is calling for swift, decisive recommendations and for them to be acted on quickly.
‘The inquiry is costing a great deal of public money, and it must deliver value by reporting much sooner,’ Mike Padgham, chair of ICG, said. ‘If we’ve learned anything, we much act now. Sadly, I fear we haven’t learned the lessons, and the country is perhaps no more prepared in social care for a future crisis than it was in 2020.
‘Social care remains a second-class citizen to the NHS; underfunded, under-resourced and undervalued. We cannot go on like this. The people we care for, and the staff who look after them, deserve so much better.’
To give context, during the early stages of the pandemic care homes and social care providers were left without proper testing methods and adequate PPE. However the real problem is what came as a result of insufficient equipment – figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show between early March and early June 2020, almost 20,000 care home residents in England and Wales died because of coronavirus.
‘We were told care homes were protected and they weren’t,’ Mike continued. ‘We were left to cope with discharges form hospitals without testing, without proper PPE, and without the support we desperately needed. If this inquiry does anything, it must ensure that this never happens again. We must protect the most vulnerable and value the services that care for them.’
While the inquiry is right to analyse how our healthcare services can be better prepared, should anything as horrific as Covid happen again, the taskforce also claim they never lose sight of why they started all of this: to honour individuals who worked through the impossible and those who tragically lost their life. Mirroring this message, Mike also said he wanted to use this moment to pay respects on behalf of the ICG.
‘We want to thank all the incredible staff across health and care services who worked through the Covid pandemic. In particular, I want to pay tribute to the social workers in care homes and delivering domiciliary care, who place themselves in harm’s way every single day,’ he said. ‘Many gave up time with their own families, even lived in care facilities, so they could look after others safely. They put their clients and residents ahead of everything else. That courage and sacrifice should never be forgotten.
‘We also remember, with great sadness, staff who lost their lives, and all those who died during the pandemic. Our condolences go to their families and loved ones. It was a deeply anxious and traumatic time for so many.’
Photo by engin akyurt via UnSplash
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