Representative body Care England has called for urgent action after receiving member feedback that some local authorities are requiring providers to accept Covid-19 positive individuals to receive emergency government funding.
Care England said that contravenes the right of care providers to make admissions based on their understanding of what they have the capacity to provide and to protect existing staff and residents.
The UK government has allocated £3.2bn since March to help local authorities support social care during the pandemic.
Care England however said a number of local authorities have attached strings or have yet to engage with the sector.
“Some are not following their own representative associations guidance by not offering 5% for national minimum wage and 10% for Covid-19 costs and quite a number are adding various conditions and bureaucracy,” a spokeswoman said.
The body called for more to be done to ensure the £3.2bn given to local authorities gets through to social care amid warnings that delays in funding making its way to the front line would make care provider financial sustainability issues even more acute.
“The pandemic presents social care providers with unbearable human costs, but also has severe financial implications. As an immediate priority we implore central government to instruct local authority commissioners to use the funds allocated to them for the frontline,” said chief executive Martin Green.
Care England also called for more funding for local government and Clinical Commissioning Groups to give providers the necessary funds to cover Covid-19 related costs, as well as direct business support from central government.
