Care home and home care workers to get free PPE until March 2021

Care home residents and staff as well as home care workers and the people they care for, are to get free PPE until March 2021, according to the government.

Free PPE is part of the new Adult Social Care Winter Plan which has been drawn up to support care homes and home care services through the winter months.

Care homes and home care care services will also be able to access a £546m Infection Control Fund so they can pay care workers full sick pay if they have to self-isolate. Care homes are also being encouraged to use the money to increase their workforce to limit staff moving between different care homes.

In addition the government is also appointing a new chief nurse for adult social care to provide clinical leadership to the social care nursing workforce and setting up a dashboard for local, regional and national government to monitor care home infections.

The government has pledged to up its monitoring and regulation of care providers by local authorities and the Care Quality Commission, which includes asking them to take strong action where improvement is required or staff movement is not being restricted. This will include restricting a service’s operation, issuing warning notices or placing conditions on a provider’s registration.

'Our priority' is to protect the 'most vulnerable' and 'our incredibly hard-working workforce'

Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “We are entering a critical phase in our fight against coronavirus with winter on the horizon. Our priority over the next six months is to make sure we protect those most vulnerable receiving care and our incredibly hard-working workforce by limiting the spread of the virus and preventing a second spike.

“This Winter Plan gives providers the certainty they need when it comes to PPE and provides additional support to help care homes to limit the movement of staff, stop the spread of coronavirus and save lives. We will be monitoring the implementation of this carefully and will be swift in our actions to protect residents and colleagues across the country.”

Recruitment for the new chief nurse for adult social care will begin in October.

Minister for Care, Helen Whately added: “The creation of the Chief Nurse for Social Care is also an important step and will provide leadership to social care nurses and the wider care workforce who often work unseen. The skills and compassion of our care workers must be fully recognised and supported.”

The Adult Social Care Winter Plan “draws from expertise across the social care sector”, according to David Pearson, chair of the Adult Social Care Covid-19 Support Taskforce, who said: “I would like to pay thanks to the huge involvement from the social care sector in the taskforce and in the development of this report and indeed in aligning closely with the Winter Plan. Close coordination between local and national bodies within the sector is critically important to the success of the sector and will play an important part in keeping people safe and healthy in the winter months ahead.”

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England welcomed “the Government’s focus on care homes” and said Care England “will work with them to implement the Winter Plan to ensure the best outcome for residents of care homes and their families”.

'Very positive'

Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum called it "very positive that it appears the government has listened to the needs of the care sector in its headline announcements about the Winter Plan".

She added: "NCF have been raising the issues facing providers – including the substantial costs of PPE and the importance of the Infection Control Fund in all its discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care. We also welcome the role of the Chief Nursing Officer for Adult Social Care, having been consistent champions of the role of nursing in social care, and feel that this role will do much to stimulate interest and recognition of the vital contribution of nurses to the social care sector.

“It is less clear that the plan will cover other essential issues, such as improving the reward and recognition for our 1.5m strong care workforce, who continue to work 24/7 to provide care and support across our communities.

"And while we support effective oversight and regulation, the headlines suggests yet more strong action and enforcement in an already tightly regulated and monitored sector. This does not give confidence at a time when we can only deliver on our ultimate shared objective around the provision of quality care in the midst of a pandemic in winter by working together in partnership. The devil will, as always, be in the detail – we need to see the full plan now to ensure it meets expectations."

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