Gail Monahan

2020: Matt Hancock, "Right from the start we've tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes" 2026: Baroness Hallett, "The claim that a so called protective ring has be thrown around care homes right from the start was unfounded. Quite the opposite is true. The adult social care sector as a whole, appeared to be something of an after thought" My view: Matt Hancock said the government had tried to throw a “protective ring” around care homes. He repeated the claim in Parliament. Nadhim Zahawi later publicly backed it, while Boris Johnson defended the government’s handling when challenged. Now Baroness Hallett’s inquiry has rejected the claim as unfounded: care homes were not protected from the start; adult social care was treated as an afterthought. This was more than a failure of words. Patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes without routine testing, and care homes were not advised to isolate those arrivals. Staff faced shortages of PPE and testing, while residents and families bore the consequences. The inquiry describes a system that failed to plan for the risks and failed to put care homes at the centre of its response. What we saw was a collective failure—a collaboration of incompetence at the expense of life. The phrase “protective ring” offered reassurance while the protections people needed were missing. Thousands of families were left grieving, and care workers were left trying to cope with the consequences. Those responsible should face the findings honestly, explain how this happened and make sure the lessons lead to change. But the question remains, why is there almost no accountability for the actions government ministers took during covid?