Care providers across Dudley borough will receive a multi-million cash boost this week to support them during the coronavirus outbreak.

The providers will receive a share of £2.5 million to help them through the crisis, supporting vital work in caring for some of the borough’s most vulnerable residents. Payments will be fast-tracked to help ease the financial burden of this crisis with payments commencing this week.

The funding is as a result of governmental financial support to councils during the Covid ’19 period. In addition, council staff continue to work closely with care providers to assess their needs and provide additional support where needed.

Since the outbreak began, the council has provided weekly supplies of Personal Protective Equipment and maintains regular contact with care providers to offer advice and guidance in infection control procedures. The council is forecasting to have spent £3 million on PPE by the end of May.

The council and Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group has also created a strategic and a clinical operational group to assess the clinical, logistics needs  and workforce capacity of care homes on daily bases and to ensure needs are met.

A dedicated swabbing team has been working with care homes to swab all symptomatic and a symptomatic residents. This will help to reduce the risk of further spread of COVID-19 inside care homes and ensure residents are receiving the clinical care they need timely and effectively.

Training in areas such as bereavement support is also being provided to the care homes. Councillor Nicolas Barlow, cabinet member for health and social care, said:

"This crisis has hit our care providers hard but despite that they continue to care for our vulnerable residents with true professionalism and dedication.

"I’m really pleased we are now in a position to provide these grants within a matter of days to help ease the financial burden so many are under. As well as easing financial pressures, we will continue to do all we can to support care providers.

"The combined efforts of care providers, informal carers, volunteers, Council Staff and the NHS have all enabled us to continue to support the people of Dudley and not cease our legal duties under the Care Act.

"We are providing a testing service with our partners to help identify cases and infection prevention advice to tackle the spread of infection. We will also offer ongoing advice and support and helping to source essential PPE."

People can find out more about council services and support available during the pandemic at dudley.gov.uk/coronavirus.