Care leader welcomes extra £60m for social care but warns it has come 'too little, too late'

The Independent Care Group (ICG) has welcomed the government’s announcement that it will provide an extra £60 million to protect the sector in the new year as cases of Omicron rise, but is “dismayed” the government did not act sooner when it was “warned of a staff crisis” earlier this year.

Local councils will see the additional funding in January which includes helping with investing in improved ventilation, as well as paying for COVID-19 sickness and self-isolation pay for staff.

The government said the Omicron Support Fund is on top of the £388 million infection control and testing fund announced earlier in the year to prevent infections and provide testing in the care sector.

The ICG chair Mike Padgham said: “We welcome the £60m the government is providing to local authorities to support social care; it is absolutely vital.

“Our only dismay is the government did not act at the end of the summer, when we warned of an impending staff crisis, and not now that we are in it.

“This money will take time to filter through to the front line and in the meantime care providers are struggling to fill their staff shifts today, tomorrow and next week.”

Mr Padgham also “welcomed” the government’s announcement that it was expanding the Health and Care Visa scheme in a bid to stem the care sector recruitment crisis, making foreign care workers eligible for fast-track UK visas.

But said the government was "warned in the summer" that social care was heading into a "very real staffing crisis" and "appealed" for help then.

The leading care home jobs site, carehome.co.uk, has seen the number of jobs posted climb to its highest ever level. It currently has over 9,000 jobs listed. In January 2021 it had 4,832 listed, by August this had nearly doubled to 8,142. In August 2020, job vacancies stood at 4,959 and in August 2019, they were 5,241. A report by Skills for Care in October revealed that an average of 6.8 per cent of roles in the adult social care sector were vacant in the year 2020/21. This is equivalent to 105,000 jobs being advertised on any given day.

He said: “Only now is it responding with what many will agree is too little and too late.

“With every passing day, providers are losing staff to the pandemic and finding it impossible to fill their shifts.

“We need urgent help to prevent the care of our oldest and most vulnerable from suffering this winter.”

The government also stated it has taken action throughout the pandemic to protect social care, which includes continuing to provide free PPE to protect against COVID-19 to the adult social care sector, provide regular asymptomatic COVID-19 testing and continue to support care providers to make best use of technology to help remote monitoring including making pulse oximeters available to care homes that have less than the recommended number of devices.

Minister for Care Gillian Keegan said: “Protecting care staff and people who use social care services continues to be a priority, especially as cases surge and Omicron spreads rapidly around the country.

“Today’s extra funding will ensure that we continue to support adult social care to keep people safe and prevent outbreaks.

“A huge thank you goes out to care workers for all they are doing to care for people and keep themselves and others safe this winter.”

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