Written Statement: Social Care Recovery Fund

The pandemic continues to present challenges to social care. We are determined to support it in the immediate term and to help the sector recover and move forward, in line with the commitments we have set out in our Programme for Government.

I am today announcing a £40m recovery fund for social care this financial year. Allocations have been made to each local authority for authorities to spend, with partners, on social care recovery activity in line with the priorities set out in the Social Care Recovery Framework, which I published on 22 July.

This fund builds on the framework and is intended to support local authorities and partners to address our agreed immediate and short-term priorities for recovery. The framework expands on Improving Health and Social Care (COVID-19 Looking Forward), which was published in March, and which lay the foundations for a strong, positive future for social care in Wales.

In addition to the fund, we are investing a further £8m in a series of specific social care recovery activities. These include:

• £2.8m for regional residential services for care-experienced children and young people with complex needs, extending the availability of this provision across Wales.
   
• £2.8m for a Family Intervention Fund, which will support child and family wellbeing through a mixture of practical and direct support to safely divert cases from child protection registration.

• £1m to continue the Carers Support Fund, which will provide grants of up to £300 to unpaid carers in urgent need across Wales.

• £600,000 to support a cluster-level approach to the delivery of learning disability health checks, increasing health board activity in this area to support the health and wellbeing of individuals and to quickly identify potential health issues as early as possible and help reduce health inequalities.

• £220,000 to support older people to re-engage with communities after the pandemic through social groups. This delivers on the aims of the Strategy for an Ageing Society and its vision of an age-friendly Wales.

• £100,000 to promote a rights-based approach for older people, commissioning work with older people and stakeholders to raise awareness of how to embed a rights-based approach in the design and delivery of relevant services.

• £150,000 to support the COVID-19 recovery of Hillside Secure Children’s Home.

• £190,000 to help improve the wellbeing offer for the social care workforce, to ensure they are supported during and after the pandemic. This funding recognises how critical the social care workforce is and the risks posed by staff shortages.

• £140,000 for the Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru to support the delivery of the recovery framework through the coordination and delivery of national activities.