Councillor Anna Bailey announces Cambridgeshire County Council is making a 10 per cent rise in payments for adult social care
Cambridgeshire County Council has announced it will be spending an extra £1.4m a month on social care to help with the current Covid-19 crisis.
In a statement released today (Friday), Councillor Anna Bailey, chairman of the council's adult services committee, said: "Today I have taken the decision – backed by the leader of the council – to agree a 10 per cent increase in the fees we pay to providers of adult social care, to support them and recognise the tremendous efforts and financial pressure that they are facing in the fight against COVID-19.
"This will put an additional £1.4m per month into the care sector locally and will be paid to all those organisations we contract with to supply residential, nursing and home care, extra care, supported living and direct payments to help them continue to provide care to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I thank all our care organisations throughout Cambridgeshire and every single member of their staff for everything they are doing.
"Some of this additional spend will be met by our share of the funding Cambridgeshire has received from central Government to support the additional costs of COVID-19, but the Government funding will not cover the whole cost.
"However we have taken the decision now, because we know these care providers need the financial support now.
"We will get this additional money to them from the beginning of next week – and it will continue until at least the end of June.
"The Government has made a commitment that they will do all in their power to fight the consequences of this unprecedented pandemic – and we support them in this. We will be making sure that any additional costs we incur over and above the funding we’ve already received are properly identified and accounted for and then we will enlist the support of our Cambridgeshire MPs to report this back to Government for any additional reimbursement we need.
"This so that the people of Cambridgeshire can be properly supported both now and in the future."
