The campaign for Anne’s Law – to enshrine visiting rights for care home residents – is nearing the winning line.
After more than a year of vows, the Scottish Government has announced it will back a National Care Service Bill.
The law is named after Anne Duke, a 63-year-old home care therapist whose plight inspired a Sunday Mail campaign.
Anne passed away last year but her husband Campbell and daughter Natasha have pushed on fighting for the law change.
Natasha said: “The fact it’s written down now is a huge milestone in getting Anne’s Law into legislation and it’s also recognising what we’ve been shouting about for two years – it shouldn’t have happened, people shouldn’t have been kept from their families.
“It’s bittersweet. I don’t want to say, ‘I told you so,’ but we did.”
Campbell praised Natasha, Care Home Relatives Scotland and the Sunday Mail.
He said: “We never thought we’d get as far as this. We are so grateful for everyone’s efforts including the Sunday Mail, which has been so influential.”
When enacted, Anne’s Law will give Scottish ministers the power to set a “visiting direction” for all care homes in the event of an outbreak, like coronavirus, in future.
Ministers say it will stop care home providers from being able to set rules like in Covid, which saw some get to visit relatives while others could not.
Cathie Russell, who represents the Care Home Relatives Scotland group, said the new development was important as it “concentrates responsibility to ministers” and should prevent care homes from taking different approaches.
Anne’s MSP, Labour’s Monica Lennon, said: “Every step towards making Anne’s Law real must be welcomed.
"However, the pace of reform will leave many fearful that care home residents are still not a priority for SNP ministers.”
Minister for Social Care Kevin Stewart said the bill was the “final step in the process of introducing Anne’s Law”.
The Sunday Mail’s support for Anne’s Law continues our series of successful campaigns.
We helped Ukrainian teenager Nataliia Zavhorodnia get a UK visa after she had been denied one due to red tape because she was travelling without her parents.
We’ve also been campaigning for all Scottish kids to receive free school meals.
And the Sunday Mail has long campaigned for a ban on wet wipes which contain plastic and for them to be replaced with a kind that can be flushed.
