Cornwall Council will be receiving £1.4million from the Government as part of the £120million Workforce Capacity Fund for Adult Social Care, as well as £1.7million from the £149million Adult Social Care Rapid Testing Fund, to support the rollout of Lateral Flow Device testing in care homes.
The Workforce Capacity Fund for Adult Social Care is new government funding to help local authorities increase staffing capacity in social care.
Local authorities can use the funding to establish new initiatives or bolster existing ones such as staff banks or redeployment models. Or they can choose to pass some or all of the funding on to providers, using their discretion to target those with the most urgent staffing need.
Commenting, St Austell and Newquay MP Steve Double said:
“The new variant of COVID-19 is causing a rise in staff absence rates across the social care sector, due to carers testing positive or having to self-isolate. I am pleased that the Government has recognised these issues and the impact they could have on some of our most vulnerable people, and has released funding to help local authorities through this difficult time.
“I will be writing to Cornwall Council to ask them to act quickly to use this funding to support care providers with the most urgent staffing shortages.”
“Along with the funding to support the rollout of lateral flow device testing in care homes, this will help these environments to be COVID-19 secure, while ensuring residents get the care they need.”
This funding is in addition to steps already taken to boost the social care workforce including the £1.1bn Infection Control Fund (which can be used by care providers for workforce costs where this supports Infection Prevention & Control), provision of free online training for social care job candidates, the launch of a social care jobs portal ‘matchmaking’ candidates to jobs, and collaboration with DWP to encourage job-seekers to take up social care roles.