UKHSA Publishes New Guidance to Help Care Providers Understand and Manage Infection Risk
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published a new resource aimed at helping care home managers, providers and other adult social care stakeholders better understand the legal and public health framework surrounding infectious diseases in care settings.
The guidance, published on 26 August 2026, sets out to promote a clear and consistent understanding of the legal and public health arrangements surrounding infectious diseases in adult social care settings for non-specialists, explaining key health protection terms and concepts to support the consistent application of existing guidance on specific infectious hazards.
The resource is designed for anyone who needs to understand health protection in adult social care, including policymakers, providers, commissioners and other stakeholders, and is intended to complement, rather than replace, existing legal and regulatory requirements.
A key section of the guidance addresses Regulation 9A of the Health and Social Care Act, which governs visiting during outbreaks. UKHSA guidance on supporting safer visiting in care homes outlines principles for the safe planning and management of visits during infectious disease outbreaks, reinforcing that visiting into and out of settings should be actively facilitated and recognised as a fundamental aspect of care, wellbeing and human rights.
Providers are reminded that visiting restrictions should only be implemented where risks cannot be sufficiently mitigated, and any restrictions must be proportionate, risk-based and time-limited.
The guidance draws an important distinction for care providers. A notifiable disease is reported based on a suspected illness in a person, whereas a notifiable organism is reported when a specific microorganism is confirmed through laboratory testing — medical practitioners report notifiable diseases, while laboratories report notifiable organisms.
It notes that under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010, registered doctors must report cases of people who have, or are suspected of having, a notifiable disease to the Proper Officer of the relevant local authority, who must then pass the information to UKHSA
The guidance highlights how common asymptomatic carriage of infectious organisms is among care home residents. A 2023 review of multiple studies estimated that around one in five individuals living in care homes for older adults in the UK carried meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Separate research found that one in four individuals carried norovirus during outbreak situations in nursing homes.
Because carriers and their care teams may be unaware of colonisation, the guidance stresses that all staff, in all care settings, must always follow standard infection control precautions.
The guidance defines an outbreak as 2 or more linked cases of the same confirmed or suspected infection occurring around the same time and associated with the service or location, and advises that care home providers should inform relevant bodies — such as the local UKHSA health protection team, infection control team, local authority, commissioners or the CQC — of any outbreak or suspected outbreak to obtain support and advice.
On the subject of antimicrobial resistance, the guidance is explicit that carriage of resistant organisms alone should not restrict a resident’s day-to-day life. There should not be restrictions on visiting a care setting or an individual leaving the setting because of known carriage of any multidrug-resistant organisms.
The guidance also touches on food-borne illness, pointing providers toward the Food Standards Agency’s dedicated food safety management pack for residential care homes, and signposts further UKHSA guidance on scabies management, influenza-like illness outbreaks, and general infection prevention and control resources for the sector.
The full guidance, including a glossary of key terms, is available on the GOV.UK website. Care providers with questions about the document can contact UKHSA’s Adult Social Care Team at ASCTeam@ukhsa.gov.uk.
