‘Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce: report on first phase of COVID-19 pandemic’

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, a pandemic. The government in England introduced a combination of policies in response to the pandemic, including a national ‘lockdown’ on 23 March 2020.

The social care sector in England was disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with care home residents and care workers at higher risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 than other adults. The Department of Health and Social Care had published its adult social care action plan for responding to the virus on 15 April 2020 and announced funding for infection prevention and control for social care providers in May 2020. Government then set up a COVID-19 Support Taskforce for the social care sector in June 2020, to ensure the delivery of existing government support to the sector and advise on a plan ‘over the next year’. The taskforce was led by David Pearson and reported to the Minister of State for Care, Helen Whately.

Report on the first phase of the pandemic

On 18 September 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care published a report from the taskforce. The report concluded that most of the commitments of the adult social care action plan had been delivered. It outlined what had been learned in the first phase of the pandemic and made recommendations on the ongoing pandemic response and increasing resilience in the sector.

In its assessment of the early pandemic response, the taskforce said that there had been ‘significant concerns’ among the social care sector about accessing and paying for enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff. Regarding government guidance for providers, it found that frequent changes meant that it could be ‘contradictory or difficult to access and interpret’ and guidance on care home visiting was ‘failing to enable many residents to stay in contact with loved ones’. It highlighted the need to better support people from minority ethnic backgrounds, who were disproportionally impacted by COVID-19.

The taskforce’s recommendations focused on improving the supply of PPE, COVID-19 diagnostic testing, support for carers and guidance and communications for the sector. It recommended increasing support for the workforce, drawing on evidence that having staff working across multiple settings increased the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes and that providing full sick pay to ill and isolating staff reduced risks. The report also said government should improve data collection in the sector and develop its expertise on social care.

On 18 September 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care published its adult social care plan for winter 2020 to 2021. The plan included many of the taskforce’s recommendations, for example offering free PPE to social care staff over winter. Other recommendations – such as bonus payments for care workers – were not adopted.

Later developments

In October 2020, the Care Quality Commission (the health and care regulator) and the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee published reports into adult social care. These concluded that the pandemic had exacerbated long-standing issues in the sector. Both reports called for long-term reform and investment in the sector as well as more planning for the workforce.

In April 2022, a high-court ruling concluded that the policy of urgently discharging NHS patients into care homes ‘failed to take into account the […] risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission’. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock’s decision to make and maintain the policy without advising isolation upon care home admission was ruled unlawful.