Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Government's announcement on 16 January 2021 of additional £120 million of funding for local authorities to boost staffing levels in the care sector during the covid-19 outbreak, whether he plans to take steps to (a) allocate the funding across local authorities, (b) ensure that funding is allocated according to level of need and (c) make that funding available on a permanent footing for local authorities.
The £120 million Workforce Capacity Fund for adult social care is available until 31 March and was created to address critical staffing shortages caused by COVID-19. The Government announced local authority allocations on 16 January. These were calculated using the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/workforce-capacity-fund-for-adult-social-care
In 2021-22 we expect to provide local authorities with estimated funding of £3 billion to help manage the impact of COVID-19. Of this, £1.55 billion is being provided as grant funding directly for spending pressures on local authority services, including adult social care. We are actively reviewing the need for further funding for adult social care and decisions will be made in due course.