Scotland’s care watchdog received 169 reports of covid cases from care at home services, it has emerged.

The Care Inspectorate will publish a report of an inquiry it has carried out into the impact of care at home services in the next three to four weeks.

The investigation hopes to give a ‘national picture’ of the extent of care reductions in the early days of the crisis.

Giving evidence to MSPs on Holyrood’s health committee, Care Inspectorate Chief Executive Peter Macleod said it has been “closely monitoring” care at home services during the pandemic.

He said: “There are just over 1,000 stand-alone care at home services, in addition there are over 1,000 that provide housing support.

“I can tell you that 16% or around 169 notifications of covid cases were received from those services, and that I think provides evidence of the kind of monitoring and awareness we have had of what has been happening within those services.”

He said the inquiry was just about completed, with responses received from almost all health and care partnerships in Scotland.

“[That] will also then guide us as to what further inspection, intervention and other means we need to employ to ensure that part of the sector has responded and will continue to respond to the increased challenges of infection prevention control moving forward,” he said.

As the pandemic hit, there were warnings people who receive care in their own homes were feeling “abandoned” over support being cut.

In Glasgow, Scotland’s largest local authority, social care was cut back to ‘life and limb’ cover only at the peak of the crisis.

Kevin Mitchell, Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance at the Care Inspectorate, told MSPs: “We are aware that in some areas care at home services were scaled at the outset of the pandemic.

“So the inquiry or investigation work that we are undertaking, which is almost concluded, will actually give us a national picture of the impact in terms of the decision making around care at home, how that care at home was prioritised during pandemic, monitoring the impact of any changes to packages that were delivered, how the engagement has continued – or not perhaps – with service users and it will also look at the recovery plan.

“That will hopefully give us a sense of what we need to focus on and where and that forms very much part of our intelligence led and targeted proportionate approach to inspection.”

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