The Conservative Government has provided Milton Keynes Council will nearly £1 million to continue to support the adult care sector through the COVID-19 pandemic.
First introduced in May 2020, the Adult Social Care Infection Control Fund was set up to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission within and between care settings.
It was extended in October 2020 and, in April 2021, it was consolidated with the existing Rapid Testing Fund, to support additional lateral flow testing (LFT) of staff in care homes, and enable indoors, close contact visiting where possible.
By June 2021, these funding streams had provided almost £1.35 billion ring-fenced funding for infection prevention and control, and £288 million for rapid testing in care settings.
Due to the success of the Infection Control and Testing Fund in supporting care providers to reduce transmission and re-enabling close contact visiting, this fund has been extended until September 2021, with an extra £251 million of funding.
Ben Everitt, the MP for Milton Keynes North, commented: "This is incredibly important news to ensure people care homes across Milton Keynes continue to be safe for both staff and residents.
"While our vaccination programme has been a huge success and we have weakened the link between cases and deaths this funding shows the Conservative Government's continued support for a sector on the frontline of the pandemic to ensure care homes are as safe as possible."
