Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent financial support his Department has allocated to care homes.

We have set out a comprehensive action plan to support the adult social care sector in England throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, including ramping up testing, overhauling the way personal protective equipment is being delivered to care homes.

Social care services are commissioned by local authorities. On 19 March we announced £1.6 billion to help local authorities deal with the immediate impacts of COVID-19, which many councils will have directed towards the adult social care. On 18 April we announced an additional £1.6 billion of funding to support councils delivering essential frontline services.

This funding is part of the Government’s commitment to ensure the National Health Service and social care system, and other public services, have the resources required to tackle COVID-19. The Government will continue to monitor pressures in the NHS and local government and will keep future funding under review.