Coronavirus: Care staff in lockdown with residents 'to keep them safe'

Staff who have moved into the care home where they work say it has had a "positive effect on the residents".

In March, 10 members of staff moved into The White House in Teignmouth, Devon, where they care for people with dementia.

They are sleeping in a campervan and the staff offices to ensure the 17 residents are "kept safe".

Manager Demelza Lamport said since moving in "we have established better relationships with the residents".

She said the staff have "settled in really well".

Finance and office manager Rebekah Hayden said: "We made the decision because we thought it was going to be the only way to keep them safe.

"It's had a positive effect on the residents - seeing the same faces all the time.

"It wasn't a difficult decision because I am one of the team, but I talk to my son and parents every day - I miss him and he misses me."

She has been working in the kitchen to release other staff members who can work as carers.

"My office is now a bedroom for three of us. I moved everything around and turned it into three separate cubicles so we've got as much privacy as possible," she said.

Katie Smith, a care assistant, said the decision to move in "keeps the residents safe and my family safe".

"I've only been here for two months so it was a massive change. I'm getting to know the staff and residents better, like a family."

The staff unable to stay with the residents have been working at The White House's sister care home.

The National Care Association said what staff members were doing was "most admirable".