Social care leaders have called on the UK Government to act on the findings and recommendations of the Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 6 report, published on 20 October 2026, highlighting the devastating impact of the pandemic on people receiving and providing care. Leaders have stressed that its findings must now lead to meaningful, lasting change.
The Inquiry heard harrowing evidence from bereaved families, care professionals and people affected by the pandemic. Its findings have renewed calls for adult social care to be recognised as an essential public service, with people drawing on care, unpaid carers and the workforce fully considered in national emergency planning.
Reform for homecare
Dr Jane Townson OBE, Chief Executive of the Homecare Association, highlighted the need to learn from the experiences of the pandemic and address the longstanding challenges facing adult social care.
She 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 care workers 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.”
Protecting the rights of people receiving care
The Inquiry also highlighted the profound harm caused by restrictions on visiting during the pandemic, particularly for people living in care homes who were separated from loved ones at an already distressing time.
Helen Wildbore, CEO of Care Rights UK, welcomed the recommendation that people relying on care should have the right to in-person visitors, stressing the importance of translating this into action.
She said:
“The devastating impact of isolation of people in care settings has been laid bare in Baroness Hallett’s report. We welcome the recommendation by the Inquiry that people relying on care ‘should have the right to in-person visitors’. An amendment to the Health Bill is passing through Parliament to introduce the right to a ‘Health and Care Partner’ across health and care settings. We encourage the Government to take forward this amendment in order to implement one of the Inquiry’s recommendations immediately. People relying on care services should never again be an ‘afterthought’.”
Recognising the contribution of the social care workforce
The report also highlighted the pressures faced by care workers during the pandemic, many of whom worked in extremely difficult circumstances while lacking adequate protection and support. With the sector already facing significant workforce shortages before Covid-19, the crisis exposed the consequences of longstanding underinvestment and inadequate pandemic planning.
The findings challenge the suggestion that care homes had been adequately protected during the early stages of the pandemic. Instead, they point to serious shortcomings in preparedness, access to personal protective equipment and the support available to those working on the frontline.
Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said:
“The Inquiry is clear—the claim that a protective ring had been placed around care homes ‘does not accurately reflect the lack of action taken to protect care homes across the UK in March and the first half of April 2020’. There was no protective ring as promised. In fact, there was ‘a woeful lack of planning’, says the report. The failures were ‘the direct result of an absence of proper pandemic planning for the adult social care sector’. Care workers didn’t fail. They were failed.
“Others made their own PPE from fabric, bin bags, bed linen and whatever else they had at home, with some cutting face masks from laminated plastic and using elastic from old leggings to hold them in place. Where PPE simply could not be found, some care services turned to veterinary or construction suppliers, or rang round local businesses and neighbours to ask for what they could spare. Some social care workers were even told by their employers to reuse single-use masks, or not to wear them at all.”
The findings underline the need to address failures in national preparedness alongside accountability for decisions made across the care system. Social care must be fully integrated into emergency planning, with appropriate resources, information and clinical support available from the outset.
Turning recommendations into action
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said the report must lead to practical changes that strengthen the resilience of adult social care and ensure providers are properly supported in future emergencies.
He said:
“The central lesson from this report is that adult social care cannot again be expected to carry national risk without the authority, information, resources and clinical support needed to manage it safely.
“Pressure in hospitals must never again be relieved by transferring unmanaged risk into adult social care. Providers need to be part of emergency planning from the beginning, and national resilience must be properly funded directly to where the costs were incurred rather than passed down as another cost to individual services.
“The Inquiry’s recommendations are essential, but the real test now is implementation. The government should be clear about who owns each action, how it will be funded, when it will be delivered, and how we will know that preparedness has genuinely improved.
“We should not wait for wider reform through the Casey Commission to act on lessons that are already clear. There is a great deal that can and should be done now.”
Professor Green concluded:
“Six years on, the question is whether adult social care would be materially better prepared if another pandemic occurred tomorrow. The government must now demonstrate that it would be.”
A call for lasting reform
Across adult social care, there is a shared recognition that the Inquiry’s findings must mark a turning point in how care is valued, funded and supported.
Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
“The COVID-19 Inquiry has today published its Module 6 Report on what Baroness Hallett calls the devastating impact of the pandemic on people receiving and providing care and their loved ones.
“My thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones in the pandemic, and especially those who endured the immense distress and harm of visiting restrictions in care homes, which meant they could not be with loved ones, even as they died.
“I also pay tribute to all those who worked to protect the most vulnerable in very difficult circumstances, from care workers to family members.
“The report finds the adult social care sector was in a fragile state and insufficiently prepared for a pandemic, and that social care was too often treated as an afterthought in comparison to the priority placed on protecting the NHS.
“We will provide a full response to the report’s recommendations in due course, but I agree with the Chair when she says adult social care has, for too long, been undervalued and under-recognised.
“That has to end, and I hope we can work cross-party to support the Prime Minister’s vision for a National Care Service in the future.”
Leaders are calling for clear accountability, sustainable investment and meaningful collaboration between national and local government, the NHS, regulators, care providers and those who draw on care.
The challenge now is to ensure that the experiences of people receiving care, their families and the workforce are not forgotten, and that the lessons of the pandemic lead to lasting improvements in the safety, dignity and quality of care across the UK.
