£1.6M BOOST FOR BOROUGH BATTLING PANDEMIC Cash injection for care homes fighting virus
HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds of Government money is set to be paid out to care homes in North Tyneside next week in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.
North Tyneside Council wrote to care home companies on Friday to tell them how it will pay them £1.6m of additional Government funding for infection control, starting with £800,000 to be divided among the 31 homes in the borough next week.
The cash comes from its share of a £600m “infection control fund” announced by Government last week.
The fund has been introduced to tackle the spread of Covid-19 in care homes in addition to £3.2bn of financial support made available to local authorities to support key public services since the start of the crisis.
The money – ring-fenced 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 costs of implementing measures to reduce transmission.
Jacqui Old, director of children’s and adult services at North Tyneside Council, said: “Our number one priority is the safety of the people who work and live in our care homes.
“We continue to work hard together with our individual care homes and providers to support them as much as we possibly can.
“The Covid-19 crisis has brought greater public awareness of the work done by colleagues in the social care sector and has made many realise we can no longer just think about hospital care without also thinking about social care.
“We hope the current crisis enables social care to receive greater certainty about funding and develop a longerterm sustainable plan that enables the care system to be fit for future. Earlier today we wrote to all our care providers to highlight the actions we have taken to support them so far; explain how we will pay them £1.6m of additional Government funding for infection control, starting with £800,000 next week; and to offer a series of conversations with our senior team to find out what care providers think the council should be doing, in addition to our current measures.
“Separately to that, we are closely monitoring a small number of homes with lower levels of occupancy to consider any risks to staff and residents. The authority would like to reassure families and care home residents that we have a duty to ensure continuity of care in all circumstances.” This comes after a letter on behalf of Care North
East, which represents 21 of the 31 care homes in North Tyneside, warning the council that the sector “is facing imminent collapse”, was sent on Tuesday.
The organisation is claiming victory, however the money is coming from North Tyneside’s share of the £600m “Infection Control Fund” announced by Central Government on May 13.
Keith Gray, of Care North East, said: “We acknowledge the fact that the council has agreed to support providers for PPE and covid-related expenditure. We also welcome its commitment to work with providers on the fundamentals – ensuring sustainability for all care provision in the north Tyneside area which is essential to the social fabric of the borough.”
However, not all care homes
are happy with Care North East’s approach.
Lucy Craig, managing director of Craig Healthcare, a care home owner in North Tyneside, who is not a member of the Care North East association, told BBC Look North: “I think Care North East are using the relatives and residents as a pawn to increase income.
“That, for me, is incredibly distasteful at a time when their lives are at threat and relatives are at home in such a state because they can’t look after their mother and father, they have to rely on us to do that.
“I feel that right now is not the time to beat the local authority over the head about money when they are trying to support us every way they can, with the restrictions that they have some central government as well.”