Meet the carers who moved in for lockdown
As Sajid Javid warns care staff that jabs are a must, Deborah Linton visits the Yorkshire home that tried a novel Covid strategy
‘If we allowed no one in and no one out, we couldn’t bring in the virus. We became one big bubble’
On a cold March morning last year, three days before Britain went into lockdown, the staff of Anchor House care home in Doncaster gathered around the residents’ dining room, socially distanced by tables, the air charged with emotion.
The elderly and vulnerable had already been asked to shield against the first wave of the pandemic; five days earlier the prime minister had advised against unnecessary visits to care homes as early signs emerged that they would become a nexus for the virus.
Karen Greaves, 59, the home’s manager of 16 years, called each of her 24 staff into work with a unique request. “We were all afraid, for residents and for ourselves,” she says. “I asked if anyone was prepared to go into lockdown, in the home, with me. I wanted to put in place the safest possible measures for residents, with the minimum possible risk. To me, that meant moving in.”
Eight workers volunteered. They moved in at 9am the next morning and stayed for 56 days.
Sleeping in offices, an outhouse and the basement, for the next eight weeks they left children and loved ones at home and worked around the clock to keep 21 residents, aged 66 to 101, safe.
“Normal shift patterns went out of the window,” says Greaves, who has worked in care since leaving school. “I felt sure that if we allowed no one in and no one out, we couldn’t bring in the virus. We became one big family existing in a single bubble, and coronavirus never entered Anchor House.”
She brought her teenage granddaughter in with her and the home’s activities coordinator, Lucy Clifford, 35, moved in with her son, 14. The teenagers managed homeschooling alongside real life experience caring for the residents.
“They would sit with them and play games and quizzes,” says Greaves. “They were responsible for taking their own temperatures, and did gardening and cooking. They kept morale up too.”
As Covid ran riot through care homes last spring, more than 39,000 residents died with it between April 10 2020 and March 31 last year, according to the Care Quality Commission. But Anchor House was making headlines for the staff ’s radical, life-saving decision.
Sue Riley, whose mother-in-law, Pat, has lived there for three years, says the decision to lockdown with residents saved lives: “At 92, if Pat had caught Covid, she wouldn’t have survived. When the news was full of care home deaths, our home had no infection rate at all because staff were living there. They saw it as their job, as nothing special but, to us, it was just incredible.”
Pat, a grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother to six, agrees: “I am still here because of what they did, the sacrifice they made.”
Anchor House staff were joined by a cook from a nearby pub who took up kitchen duties. Carers did residents’ hair and put on celebrations for Easter, a 100th birthday and the 75th anniversary of VE Day. The local community inundated them with doorstep deliveries of groceries, takeaways, cheese and biscuits, cakes, toiletries, magazines and wine to thank them. “There were far more ups than downs,” says Greaves. “We’d dress up and have barbecues. We drew a tally, on the conservatory window, of the days we were there and kept the news out as much as possible, giving them enough information to stay informed but not enough to worry.”
Deputy manager Susan Waugh, 50, video called her own mother twice a day. She recalls: “During the time we were in, I think every staff member had a cry at some point but there were a lot of laughs too.”
As the first easing of lockdown was introduced in May, the exhausted workers moved back home and reinstated their usual shifts. Eighteen months on, both workers and residents feel the experience has changed them profoundly.
“It’s a closeness we’ll always share,” says Greaves simply. “We always enjoyed a bond with residents and fellow staff – moving in might never have worked otherwise – but I think it made families see us in a new light.”
Life for her staff, she says, has “changed beyond recognition”. But the team are now under renewed pressure from the government’s decision to make Covid vaccination compulsory for all care home workers, with the Nov 11 deadline fast approaching. Last week, Health Secretary Sajid Javid warned that those who refuse to have the jab should “get out and go and get another job”. Such comments have led to anger among some, who feel forced into a decision that does not guarantee their workplace against transmission from outside.
“I refuse to put pressure on my staff when families can visit, un-jabbed, having been to restaurants or events with thousands of people,” says Greaves. “It’s shocking. I have two pregnant women and three staff who were adamant they didn’t want it until their jobs were threatened. If it’s mandatory for us, it ought to be mandatory for everyone.”
Workers in other care homes have claimed the policy is unlawful and are seeking legal action against Javid. There are also fears that it will exacerbate a staff shortage in the sector, with predictions that 40,000 staff will refuse the jab. Greaves has not lost any staff yet but says: “It’s been difficult to know I would have to sack anyone who refused the jab. Ultimately, those who didn’t want the vaccine have decided to have it to keep their jobs but there has been no pressure from me.”
Clifford’s brother, 40, died this summer from a blood clot, nine days after his first vaccination (she was already vaccinated). “That loss is the starkest reminder why you cannot force this on someone,” she says. “I feel we’re being penalised for the job we’re doing.”
In the meantime, they continue to work to help residents enjoy the loosening of restrictions. The latest government guidance allows residents to have named, regular visitors and says care home managers are best placed to determine safe settings. A petition signed by more than 250,000 people is calling for legislation to ensure nominated visitors will be allowed regardless of any future restrictions or variants.
Anchor House has introduced garden pods, offering residents private spots to meet loved ones, but visitors have not been inside since March 2020. “After everything we went through, to allow people in while the virus is still around would make it a waste of time,” says Greaves, who says residents and families have been “unanimously supportive” of the strategy. They have avoided any Covid cases until last month, when an outbreak saw 15 residents catch it, though all were double vaccinated and recovered.
Sue Riley remains full of admiration for the workers who kept her mother-in-law well when they could not: “It’s not a job with status or good pay and yet they gave up their own families to keep ours safe. They minimised our worry hugely. It’s still hard to comprehend all that they did.”
“Care home work is so much more than a job,” Greaves adds. “Now that the world has seen what we do, carers need more respect and recognition.”