Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that families with additional needs can access the respite support they require during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown period.

The Government recognises respite care services are crucial to the wellbeing of individuals who attend them and their usual carers. We have worked with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to publish guidance to help providers restart services. The Government’s Infection Control Fund can be used to support day services adopt infection control measures.

In addition, we want to identify where these services are under particular strain and what further can be done to support local authorities to continue with their important statutory duty to support family carers to continue providing care. We are now working with local authorities through Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to better understand the current provision of day services and respite care and how local provision can be adapted to continue during the pandemic.

In addition, the regulations on the new national restrictions continue to allow for:

- a vulnerable person to go to someone’s house in order to give the main carer respite;

- someone to enter the vulnerable persons house to give the main carer respite, and

- recognise the need for support groups to continue and as such formally organised groups of up to 15 can continue to meet. Day services are covered by the term ‘support group’.