Media Releases
20 Oct 2026

Overlooked, misunderstood and disadvantaged – Homecare Association responds to Covid-19 Inquiry Module 6 report

Today our thoughts are with bereaved families. Their loved ones were not statistics; they were pioneers, contributors, and cherished family members who deserved better from the systems designed to protect them. Their grief calls on us to act.

We also pay tribute to the 1.5 million careworkers who worked with courage and compassion, risking their own lives to provide people with essential care and support. They made impossible choices and sacrifices, they filled the vacuum left by others – sometimes at a cost to their own health or lives.

In our evidence and statements to the Inquiry we highlighted that professional homecare – supporting nearly one million people across the UK, more than double those in care homes – was overlooked, misunderstood and disadvantaged during our greatest peacetime emergency. We called on the Inquiry to consider homecare alongside care homes in this report and are grateful that they gave the homecare sector the attention it deserved. Multiple witnesses reinforced the evidence we gave.

We are pleased to see our recommendations reflected in the Inquiry’s recommendations. In particular:

  • Improving arrangements for pandemic planning, informed by sector expertise
  • Implementing financial support for adult social care staff to ensure safety is not compromised by money worries
  • Maintaining inspection and oversight by regulators
  • Recognising and supporting the social care workforce in England through the introduction of a voluntary register (that could become mandatory). We recommended a mandatory register covering all forms of care work

There are, however, areas where we feel that the Inquiry did not go far enough. These include:

  • Community healthcare support, which is vital for people living in their own homes and the professional careworkers and unpaid carers supporting them, was difficult to access during the pandemic. The focus was primarily on protecting NHS acute hospitals. Establishing mandatory end-of-life training is important but on its own is insufficient without access to GPs, nurses and other healthcare professionals needed for clinical advice and oversight.
  • Collecting data about deaths of workers in adult social care does not go far enough. We must capture everyone giving and receiving home-based care, creating the visibility needed for effective pandemic planning and resource allocation. The data blind spots (including, for example, who needed PPE) that hampered the Covid-19 response were inexcusable and must never recur. A professional register would go some way to addressing this, but we want to see a modern data infrastructure including a wider range of data.
  • Establishing a voluntary register is a welcome first step, but we question how useful it would be unless it evolves into a mandatory requirement before the next pandemic.

Dr Jane Townson OBE, Chief Executive of the Homecare Association said:

“Throughout the Inquiry we heard heartbreaking testimonies from bereaved families and care professionals. We owe it to those we lost, and those who served to ensure we learn lessons and implement change in a way that is effective and enduring.

In our evidence we pointed to a hierarchy of invisibility, with people at home supported by both unpaid carers and professional careworkers considered only as an afterthought. This must change.

The adult social care sector entered the pandemic in a fragile state following decades of underfunding, poor commissioning and undervaluing of the workforce. The terms of reference of the UK Covid-19 public inquiry did not permit a focus on wider systemic issues. Baroness Casey of Blackstock has an opportunity to do so as part of the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care.

We urge the Governments of the UK nations to act on the recommendations of the Covid-19 Inquiry and stand ready to support national and local government, the NHS, regulators, care providers and the Casey Commission to implement necessary change.

History will judge this moment – not by what went wrong during the pandemic, but by what we chose to do next.”

Notes to editors

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COVID-19
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