18 Aug 2025
A home care provider recognised for her leadership during Covid has welcomed the testimony given at the end of the public inquiry into the pandemic.
Camille Leavold MBE, chief executive of Abbots Care, who received the inaugural Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care gold award, praised the testimony that Dr Jane Townson OBE, CEO of the Homecare Association gave to the Care Sector Module 6 of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, which concluded at the end of July.
Dr Townson said that home care must be recognised as essential infrastructure for any future pandemic planning as the hospital-centric focus was the “fatal flaw” and led to the unintended consequence of more than 100,000 excess deaths at home by July 2022, only 7 per cent of which were attributed to COVID-19.
Many at home were left without access to healthcare and support, increasing deaths from non-COVID-19 conditions, such as dementia, cancer and heart disease.
“These deaths were a tragic and avoidable outcome of a hospital-centric emergency plan that failed to support people living – and dying – in their own homes.”
Camille, who is also non-executive director of the Homecare Association, pointed out that the media focus, and that of the inquiry, had been on care homes, but very rarely home care. “The tragic care home stories grabbed the headlines, but homecare workers who were going into houses to look after people who so desperately needed the care were largely ignored.
“The arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 challenged the home care sector like never before; clients were more isolated and worried than ever before, PPE became all important and hard to come by, providing care was more difficult than it had ever been with restrictions at all-time highs.
“Jane told the Covid inquiry that at least nine million people needed or received support at home – compared with just over half a million in hospitals and care homes combined. This highlighted the vital role that the homecare sector played in dealing with Covid and how care workers must feature strongly in future planning for pandemics.
“The most recent statistics from Hertfordshire show that in 2024 that approximately 4,155 adults in Hertfordshire were living in care homes for long-term support in 2024. In contrast, nearly 9,560* adults received care in their own homes or through community services, which highlights how important the role of homecare workers is and that they must be at the centre of future pandemic planning.
“Jane and the Homecare Association fought hard for our workforce to be recognised as essential workers, for us to get testing and vaccinations and to also help to get children back to school when they reopened.
“Without this, we wouldn’t have been able to run our home care service.”
