Coronavirus (COVID-19) Special Brief – 3 July 2020

From next week, staff and residents in care homes for over 65s and those with dementia will receive regular coronavirus tests from as part of a new social care testing strategy. Please see below for links to a news story as well as a letter from the Director General for Adult Social Care outlining more details from the Department for Health and Social Care,

While we welcome the new plans, we remain concerned that government continues to overlook other parts of the sector including people who live in their own homes and supported living settings, who are still unable to access COVID-19 testing via the government portal.

We highlighted this inequity in June and continue to monitor this situation. If you are able to provide any insights into this issue (or other areas of concern), please send us your comments to [email protected]

• On Thursday, the government has announced that councils in England will receive a further, unringfenced £500million funding to respond to spending pressures they are facing. This brings the total granted to local authorities to £27 billion.
• Please see below for details of a MHRA recommendation that all Cardinal Health facemasks are disposed of locally.
• There are incoming changes to the government's furlough scheme. Please see below for updated guidance.
• We have received communications from NHS England and NHS Improvement about NHS commitments to addressing health inequalities. The full message is included below for your reference.
• All feedback, please email [email protected]

Please read below for communications received from the NHS England and NHS Improvement Stakeholder Engagement team. "The disproportionate impact on people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, people living in areas of high deprivation and inclusion health groups shows starkly the health inequalities which persist in England today. The NHS Long-Term Plan commits the NHS to addressing health inequalities and much excellent work is underway already, particularly focused on medium and long-term action. But progress needs to be accelerated; responding to and recovering from COVID calls for more focused, additional and immediate actions. "NHS England and NHS Improvement have therefore established a Task and Finish Group, composed of a range of system leaders and voluntary sector partners, to focus on what specific, measurable actions should be taken by the NHS in the next few months. The Group will take account of feedback and ideas already received from BAME organisations, the VCSE sector, local systems and others. "It will seek to provide national clarity and drive as an integral part of the next stage of COVID recovery; together with the local flexibility needed to fit to place, ICS and region and partnerships with local authorities, communities and citizens. "The Group’s remit is to produce a set of specific proposals, set out in a very short document, to inform and sit alongside the third letter to the NHS system on the next stage of COVID response and recovery. The very short timescale means that actions cannot represent a comprehensive strategy, but they can address some of the most immediate opportunities for change and build momentum for wider progress in the future. "This work is distinct from but complementary to the dedicated work on the NHS as an employer being led by the Chief People Officer on supporting our BAME NHS staff and implementing the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard.

"The Group will be chaired by Owen Williams OBE, Chief Executive of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust. "We will endeavour to keep you informed on the progress of the work."