To ask the Minister of Health how the £12 million allocation for social care through the winter will be spent.

Significant additional funding has been made available to the Adult Social Care Sector to cover the 2021/22 financial year.

£8m has already been allocated with the approved funding split of £7.28m for Care Homes, £0.12m for Domiciliary Care and £0.6m for Supported Living. The aim of this funding is to provide support for both Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 (July to December) of this year. The funding provided will cover costs including:

•Provision of enhanced sick pay

•Additional PPE costs

•Costs of one-off Covid-19 testing for staff reimbursed

•Value of additional environmental cleaning reimbursed

•Loss of income reimbursed (from private funders)

•Costs of time for testing and swabbing for the rolling programme of testing

•Additional costs associated with supporting visiting and care partners

•Additional clinical waste and laundry costs

•Additional home insurance costs

It is anticipated that the remaining £4m will be allocated to cover Covid related costs in Quarter 4 and officials are currently finalising details of the costs to be included in this financial allocation.