NCF Response To Infection Control Fund Round Two Grant Conditions

Yesterday evening, the government published the grant conditions for round two of the Infection Control Fund, which sets out how an additional £546 million of funding is to be used to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission within and between care settings.

Vic Rayner, Executive Director at NCF says: “The publication of the grant conditions for the Infection Control provide some much needed clarity to this essential government funding. NCF welcome the fact that the government has recognised that infection control pressures stretch much wider than care homes, and has included domiciliary care, extra care and supported living settings within the funding.

However, it is hugely disappointing that the government has chosen to do this whilst simultaneously both reducing the total amount of the fund and extending the period of the funding. In practice, this means that care homes, who were the primary focus of the first round of the ICF, will receive on average approximately only 50% of the funding per month that they received in the last round, in the face of tighter restrictions around staff movement and greatly increased reporting requirements. This is extremely unhelpful at the outset of what looks to be an incredibly challenging winter period.”