Letter to health secretary calls for support for care workers
The Care Worker’s Charity, The Care Provider’s Alliance (CPA) and The Relatives and Residents Association have written an open letter to the health secretary.
Groups which represent care workers, residents and their loved ones have written to health secretary Sajid Javid asking for a vital fund to be reinstated.
The Care Workers' Charity, The Care Provider Alliance (CPA) and The Relatives and Residents Association have penned the open letter to Javid to ask for the government to bring back the Infection Control and Testing Fund and support care workers across the UK. They say it will ensure care workers are not forced to make an "impossible choice" if they test positive for Covid.
The letter says: "We are writing to you to warn you about the consequences of the recent changes to Covid measures which will have a direct negative impact on the lives and wellbeing of people who use social care and those who work in it - people’s lives are at risk.
"The guidance, which took effect this week, contains an expectation for social care workers to continue to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19, potentially up to a period of 14 days, without guaranteed full sick pay as the government has removed the funding that enabled this. This is presenting an impossible choice for care workers who are being forced to choose between their wellbeing and that of their families, and those that they provide care and support to. No other part of society is being forced to make such a choice."
The fund had provided £1.35bn to adult social care since May 2020, but will no longer continue from this month onwards. It had helped providers pay care staff off sick or forced to self-isolate as close to a full wage as possible.
The letter adds: "In just the first four weeks of this year The Care Workers’ Charity paid over £113,000 to 206 care workers in Covid grants which provides support to those in dire financial pressure who need to self-isolate. Demand for this support grows day by day at the same time as the available funding is shrinking. During 2020 and 2021 £2,585,519 was paid by the charity to 3,985 care workers. The demand is much greater than what the charity can support and it is unacceptable that care workers who do such important work should need charity to meet their basic needs. The need is now even greater due to the sheer scale of the cost of living crisis."
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