7/5/2020 

Cardiff Council and Cardiff Nursing and Residential Homes Association (CNARHA) are working together to ensure that care homes in Cardiff have what they need in order to meet the challenges of looking after people with COVID-19.

Following a joint consultation carried out to detail the costs to care homes associated with COVID-19, Cardiff Council has secured part of a £40m grant from Welsh Government.

This will ensure care homes across the city are supported during the current pandemic and continue to operate, as well as providing support to other essential adult services.

The Council will administer the fund, which will see each care provider receive an £80 extra per week per bed bought by the Council, for eleven weeks, until the end of May. This will be back dated from the beginning of the crisis in March and is in addition to agreed placement fees.

Cabinet Member for Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, Cllr Susan Elsmore said: "We appreciate that care homes will have additional expenditure related to the current health crisis and a consultation was undertaken to ensure we could draw on the correct level of funding from Welsh Government.

"We were impressed by the timely work carried out by CNARHA to identify these additional costs and the process has allowed the Council to gain a provider perspective. By listening to the concerns from care homes, we have been able to come up with a best outcome within available resources to help providers at this difficult time.

"Through partnership working, it has been possible to put the correct processes in place to support care homes in their management of COVID outbreaks which also goes towards supporting the NHS. The feedback from providers has been positive and I hope Cardiff's multi-agency approach can be used as an example to the rest of Wales."

Nava Navaratnarajah, secretary of the CNARHA said: "The survey consulted care homes in the Cardiff area on how to address cash flow problems faced during COVID-19.

"Undertaken in just three days to meet stringent time-lines, we also gauged support on the need for further sustainability grants to cover lost income from reduced occupancy rates during the pandemic. The survey highlighted various scenarios and identified what and where support is needed.

"The social care sector works hand in hand with the NHS and it is essential that care homes are recognised for their value in supporting the health and wellbeing of people in Wales. Given the availability of limited resources we feel the agreed support from Cardiff Council goes a long way towards helping to support the care home sector during COVID-19."