Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that funds made available to care home providers under the Infection Control Fund are being used to ensure that care home workers receive their normal wages in full in the event that they need to self-isolate.
Since May 2020, the Government has made funding available through the Infection Control Fund and its successors to support adult social care providers to take measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission. Providers can use the funding to ensure that staff who are isolating in line with the Government’s guidance are paid as normal and do not lose income while doing so. The Department has written to local authorities and care providers to remind them of the importance of paying staff normal wages when self-isolating.
Since April 2021, local authorities may use a small amount of this funding capped at 1% of their total infection prevention and control allocation for reasonable administrative costs associated with distribution and reporting. Local authorities are also required to put in place sufficient processes to assure that the fund is correctly spent by providers.