Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional resources he plans to provide to care homes that receiving back residents from hospital.

The Government’s priority is to free up space and resource in hospitals to care for patients affected by COVID-19, and ensure staff have capacity to treat people in need of urgent care.

The COVID-19 Social Care Action Plan was published on 15 April, to support the adult social care sector in England throughout the coronavirus outbreak, including ramping up testing, overhauling the way personal protective equipment is being delivered to care homes and helping to minimise the spread of the virus to keep people safe.

We have made £1.3 billion available to National Health Service commissioners to enhance the discharge process. It will cover the follow-on care costs for adults in social care. NHS Discharge Service Requirements were published on 19 March.

In March we provided £1.6 billion to local authorities to help their communities through the crisis. On 18 April we announced that councils will receive another £1.6 billion, taking the total for local authorities to over £3.2 billion.