Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – A new report conducted by the University College London and the Warwick Business School has demonstrated that financial backing from the Government caused postponement, instead of blocking, a financial crisis in care homes when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred.
The 4 governments of the UK gave financial backing of £2.1 billion to the care home sector during the 1st year when the pandemic occurred. This played a role in blocking a financial collapse for the care home industry during the 1st year of the pandemic while blocking the shutdown of mass care homes.
This however, did not provide clarity for all the emergency funding that was provided to support frontline care or workers as the pandemic unfolded, with large amounts ‘leaking out’ in profit and dividends as indicated in the report.
“The emergency funding during the pandemic focused on keeping care homes afloat financially with very little trickling down to many frontline workers. Only a small fraction was spent on directly supporting care staff -through enhanced sick pay and some bonus payments,” explained Co-author Dr Amy Horton of UCL Geography.
Dr Horton further indicated that while all the clapping for carers took place, this could have been the time to increase wages and conditions for one of the least paid sectors in the economy.
The sector was also met with a renewed financial crisis since the height of the pandemic, as indicated in the report, that received funding from the Economic Research Council.
The report had noted that the care home sector was impacted by a large economic shock at the beginning of the pandemic, as a result of a large dipping of income caused by increased mortality rates and lower admissions due to the virus.
Recommendations such as Improved contingency planning and a plan for restoring services among others were made in the report.
