The fund, which is ringfenced for social care, will be
given to local authorities to ensure care homes can
continue to halt the spread of coronavirus by helping
them cover the costs of implementing measures to reduce
transmission.
Care homes will be asked to restrict permanent and agency
staff to working in only one care home wherever possible.
The funding could be used to meet the additional costs of
restricting staff to work in one care home and pay the
wages of those self-isolating.
Care home support
package
Health and Social Care Secretary said:
This £600 million Infection Control Fund will help as
we continue to reduce infections in care homes and save
lives.
From the very start of this outbreak, we have been
working to protect our brilliant social care workforce
and the most vulnerable in our society.
Our package sets out clearly the extra steps local
councils and care homes should be taking as we stamp
out the spread of this virus.
In further measures announced today:
- all local authorities must conduct a daily review of
care homes in their area to ensure care homes have the
support they need with staffing, help with
accessing PPE and other
areas of operation
- the NHS will ensure that each care home has a named
clinical contact to provide better access to clinical
advice through weekly check-ins to review their patients,
and offer direct support for staff with use of equipment
and medication
- a wellbeing package for social care staff is also
being rolled out today on the new CARE app including 2
new helplines, led by the Samaritans and Hospice UK. This
will help support care staff with their mental health and
wellbeing and support those who have experienced a
traumatic death as part of their work or help with
anxiety and stress
Minister for Care said:
Our care homes, and those working tirelessly to look
after our loved ones are at the heart of our fight
against this invisible enemy, which is why we’re doing
everything we can to make sure the sector has all the
support it needs to stop the spread and save
lives.
Our support package introduces stronger measures on
infection control and steps up clinical support to make
sure there is a clinical lead assigned to every care
home right across the country to offer advice and
quicker support. This is an important set of measures
to support care homes and their staff – to continue to
do wonderful work caring for people, even at this most
difficult of times.
Local Government Secretary Rt Hon MP said:
We have already provided councils with over £3.2
billion during this pandemic so that they can respond
to the immediate pressures they are facing, including
supporting social care.
This new funding will be distributed to councils based
on the number of care home beds in their area and will
be passed on quickly to care providers. It will fund
new measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus
in care homes, minimise infection, keep staff and
residents safe and, ultimately, save lives.
Wellbeing support
Samaritans, working with NHS England, have extended the
use of their helpline to all social care workers. Social
care staff will be able to speak to a trained Samaritans
adviser who will provide a non-judgmental listening ear,
safe space to offload and signposting to other
services.
Hospice UK will also extend their bereavement and trauma
support hotline to people working in social care, with
specialist counsellors available to support staff who
have experienced trauma, stress or anxiety through their
work. Mental health and wellbeing guidance for the adult
social care workforce was recently published on the app
to support staff and employers through the outbreak.
Testing
All symptomatic and asymptomatic care home staff and
residents in England are already eligible for testing,
and testing is prioritised for care homes that look after
the over 65s. The new digital portal now enables care
homes to register for the delivery and collection of test
kits directly.
Workforce recruitment
Today’s announcement also aims to further boost the
social care workforce and work has begun to attract
thousands more people into social care over the next 3
months through the new national social care recruitment
campaign.
NHS support will see nurse returners being deployed to
care homes through the Bringing Back Staff programme, as
well providing infection control nurses to lead a ‘train
the trainers’ approach for care homes available to every
area in England. This includes advice about the
recommended approach to infection prevention
control, PPE usage and
testing advice. This programme commenced at the beginning
of May with the offer available to every area in England.
Ruth Sutherland, Samaritans CEO, said:
We are so pleased that we can offer support to even
more key workers who are doing such critical work on
the frontline. Our volunteers are ready and waiting to
provide a non-judgemental listening ear and a safe
space to offload, at a time when we know so many are
under huge emotional strain.
All calls are completely confidential and answered by
trained volunteers who will talk for as long as people
want to, whilst also offering information about other
sources of support that could be helpful.
Paul Johnstone, Deputy SRO for PHE COVID-19 Response
at Public Health England (PHE), said:
We are delighted that the social care sector will get
even more support in the form of the Social Care Fund,
based on PHE research and
emerging evidence from the World Health Organization.
We are confident that these interventions will help to
further reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and keep
our care home residents and workers safe.
The excellent work carried out by Directors of Public
Health and PHE’s Health Protection
Teams has already made a huge difference to the local
response to COVID-19. We will continue working with NHS
England and DHSC to
provide advice and support to the sector.
Tracey Bleakley, CEO, Hospice UK said:
We welcome the commitment the government is making to
ensure that the care workforce is to benefit from
bereavement and trauma support. These dedicated,
frontline health professionals face very difficult
situations dealing with COVID-19 which can take a toll
on their mental health and wellbeing. This is why
Hospice UK is so pleased to be able to extend our
services to those in social care.
- The scheme will cover frontline staff in England.
- As a result of this £600 million the devolved
administrations will receive £113 million through the
Barnett formula:
- the Scottish Government will receive £58 million
- the Welsh Government will receive £35 million
- the Northern Ireland Executive will receive £20
million
- The allocation shares for each council are calculated
as [Number of care home beds * Area Cost Adjustment] /
England sum of [Number of care home beds * Area Cost
Adjustment]. The Area Cost Adjustment reflects
differences in wages and prices in different councils.
- The funding will be paid in 2 equal instalments to
local authorities. We have allocated funding to local
authorities according to the number of care home beds in
each area, with an adjustment to reflect the costs of
operating in each area.
- We will request that 75% of the initial funding
received is passed straight to care homes within the
local authority’s geographical area for use on infection
control measures, including to care homes with whom the
local authority does not have existing contracts. We have
indicated the total funding to be paid per bed in the
allocations: the second payment will be contingent on the
first being used for infection control. The remaining 25%
must also be used for infection control measures, however
local authorities are able to allocate based on need.
This may involve support for domiciliary care workforce
measures. To be eligible for support from the grant,
providers who do not already must complete the daily care
home Capacity Tracker.
- This approach ensures that the majority of funding
reaches the front line as quickly as possible, while
ensuring that local authorities have the flexibility to
top up where it is most needed.
Further details of the Samaritans
helpline are on its website.
Allocation table
for the infection control fund for adult social
care (PDF, 108
KB, 5 pages)
