Scope of the guidance
This guidance is to support those working in social or community care and residential settings to give advice to their staff and users of their services about COVID-19. Social or community and residential care is taken to include:
- long-term conditions services
- prison residential settings
- rehabilitation settings
- community healthcare settings
- community-based settings for people with mental health needs
- community-based settings for people with a learning disability
- community social care (domiciliary care services including those provided for children) settings
- community-based settings for people who misuse substances
- local authority social work fieldwork services
- residential children’s homes, including secure children’s homes
- care home settings with or without nursing
- support to people in their own homes, either from a service or from staff directly employed by the supported
This document does not cover advice for unpaid carers, including family members who provide care in the home. They should refer to the advice on NHS Inform.
This guidance covers:
- What COVID-19 is and how it is spread.
- Advice on how to prevent spread of all respiratory infections including COVID-19.
- Advice on what to do if someone is ill in a workplace or other social care or community care or residential setting.
- Advice on what will happen if an individual is being investigated as a possible case or is confirmed as a case of COVID-19.
Where relevant, additional setting-specific information and advice is also included in, or is linked to from, this guidance. This guidance is based on what is currently known about the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). Health Protection Scotland (HPS) will update this guidance as needed and as additional information becomes available.
