Recommendation 2

The Government provided vital additional funding to the adult social care sector during the pandemic, and we appreciate that the additional covid-19 funding cannot continue indefinitely. However, the Government’s own guidance that care workers should self-isolate if they test positive for covid-19 indicates that the risk to the sector is not over. We do not accept that controlling covid-19 infections is analogous to other types of infection control, since Ministers were unable to name any other sector whose employees the Government is still advising to self-isolate. Given the huge financial pressures on the sector and acute challenges with retaining staff, the Government should extend the Infection Control Fund for as long as the public health situation requires it to advise care workers to self-isolate with covid-19. (Paragraph 13) Immediate pressures