The administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive at least £3.5 billion in additional funding.

Support which has been announced which may be relevant to Shared Lives members so far includes:

• Three-month mortgage holidays for those who find themselves in difficulty because of coronavirus
• Plans to create legislation which will private renters from eviction
• Self-employed people who are in financial distress can request support with their tax affairs or deferment from HMRC.

What does this mean for Shared Lives members?

We are working hard to establish how, where, and when these funds will be available to our Shared Lives and Homeshare members.  Shared Lives schemes in England and Scotland can contact their local council to discuss how to access the funds allocated to social care.

We are gathering evidence about how much funding Shared Lives schemes and carers need across the UK to ensure carers are fairly rewarded for their social care work. Please log in to your members’ account to contribute to the survey.

We will keep Shared Lives schemes in Wales and Northern Ireland updated with regards to what funding will be made available in those nations. We will also keep our Homeshare organisations updated with regards to the hardship funds which may be accessible for older people more vulnerable to coronavirus.

What impact will these announcements have across the four nations?

In England, councils will be fully funded to implement measures which tackle coronavirus. This includes spending to support social care. Furthermore, a £500 million ‘hardship fund’ has been established for local authorities in England to help people vulnerable to coronavirus. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is due to make a further announcement on the hardship fund shortly.

In Scotland, Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell has announced that an additional £350 million with go to those most affected by coronavirus. According to the Scottish government, this funding will be made available to councils amongst others, and is designed to ‘be flexible, cutting down on red tape to enable them to respond swiftly and according to local need for people impacted economically.’

In Northern Ireland, the government has confirmed a £370 million support package for businesses. It is not yet clear how these measures will apply to councils or the charity sector.

In Wales, Economy Minister Ken Skates has announced that the Welsh government will be investing £1.4 billion into businesses affected by coronavirus. The Welsh government plans to use some of this fund to ‘assist some self-employed people’. It is unclear as yet what funds will be made available to councils and when the fund will be available to the self-employed.