CAMPAIGNERS have launched legal action against “discriminatory” care home rules barring over-65s from taking trips outside the home.

John’s Campaign, which fights for relatives to have better access to their loved ones while they are in care, says the government is acting unlawfully by imposing a blanket ban regardless of the health of the individual.

It said the Equality Act 2010 prohibits indirect discrimination, but the guidance on care home visits “permits (indeed, requires) just such a discriminatory approach to be taken.”

The campaign is also fighting to have the rules on self-isolation — which dictate anyone who leaves a care home must self-isolate for 14 days upon return — to be overturned.

In a letter to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the campaign’s solicitors Leigh Day said the guidance must balance the Covid-19 risk against the harm caused by keeping people away from their families.

The letter continued: “That risk [is] particularly stark where many individuals in care homes have suffered from prolonged separation throughout this year.”

It said those aged 64 and under may be permitted to leave the home even if they have a condition that makes them extremely vulnerable, but older people who are otherwise healthy are not.

Leigh Day said existing law requires care homes to make specific, risk-assessed decisions for the individuals in their care and blanket restrictions are “fundamentally at odds with that requirement.”

John’s Campaign co-founder Nicci Gerrard said: “Care homes are not prisons — and people living in them should have the same rights as everyone else in society.

“John’s Campaign considers that a blanket ban on visits out is grossly discriminatory, harmful and wrong, and it is a matter of urgency that it is changed.”