The UK Government has introduced £600 million of funding to tackle the spread of coronavirus in care homes. The Infection Control Fund will be allocated to local authorities to ensure that care homes can continue to take the necessary measures to prevent and stop the spread of the virus within their sites by restricting permanent and agency staff to working in only one care home wherever possible. Funding will be used to help providers pay for additional staff and/or maintain the normal wages of staff on reduced hours or those self-isolating. Other measures could include recruitment, putting staff up in hotels if they opt to isolate from their own households, and paying for taxis to avoid staff having to use public transport. Click here
Independent Age provides advice and support for older age people. In recognition of the fact that our older generation will be one of the groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the trustees have released £2 million of funds to help smaller organisations across the UK working with older people hardest hit by the virus. Independent Age will run four rounds of funding, in each of which £500,000 will be made available for grants of up to £15,000 per application. Applications for the first round of funding opened yesterday, 18 May, with a closing date of 9am, 4 June, with two key priorities:
- Older people living in particularly complex and challenging situations; and
- Older people in danger of being out of sight and out of mind.
Decisions on applications will be made by 19 June. Dates for the three subsequent rounds can be found here; and further information on eligibility and how to apply are here.