The funding comes from the £5 billion COVID-19 fund announced by the Chancellor in last week’s budget. 

£1.6 billion will go to local authorities to help them respond to other coronavirus (COVID-19) pressures across all the services they deliver. This includes increasing support for the adult social care workforce and for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people. 

£1.3 billion will be used to enhance the NHS discharge process so patients who no longer need urgent treatment can return home safely and quickly. 

The funding will cover the follow-on care costs for adults in social care, or people who need additional support, when they are out of hospital and back in their homes, community settings, or care settings. 

Enhancing the NHS discharge process will help free up 15,000 hospital beds across England and ensure more staff have capacity to treat people needing urgent care, including those being cared for with coronavirus.

This funding is part of the government’s commitment to ensure NHS and social care system, and other public services, have all the resources they need during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The government will continue to monitor pressures in the NHS and local government and will keep reviewing future funding.  

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: 

Our NHS and social care colleagues are at the heart of protecting the most vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak, and the whole country is tremendously grateful for their commitment during this challenging time.

This funding will help the NHS and social care services in our communities to rise to this once in a generation challenge by allowing the NHS to do what it needs to, and help move people out of hospital as soon as possible to get them back home with the right support.

We are clear that we will do whatever it takes to protect lives and protect our NHS.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said: 

I’ve been clear that the NHS and other vital public services will receive whatever they need to protect people from coronavirus. 

Our £5 billion budget response fund is now being used to free up more beds in hospitals and ensure some of our most vulnerable people are getting the care they need. The government will continue to lay out comprehensive and coordinated responses to get this country through this situation.

Helen Jones, Eileen Munro and Rohan Sivanandan have been appointed as members of the Children and Family Court Support Service (Cacfass) for 4 years from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024.

Helen Jones is an experienced risk, compliance and regulatory policy practitioner, with both public and commercial cross sectoral experience in financial services and non-executive experience in social housing, services for children and young people and occupational pensions. Helen worked in various senior risk roles for the Bank of England and for the Financial Services Authority, before working for Lloyds Banking Group. She was a board member of the then YMCA London South West (now St Paul’s Group) for over 20 years, latterly as Chair of the board and has chaired the Board of the YMCA pension scheme for the last 12 years. Helen is a magistrate and member of the Greater London Family Panel. She takes over as the Lead Magistrate for the Central Family Court on 1 April. She is also a member of the Private Law Working Group established by the President of the Family Division.

Eileen Munro is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. Professor Munro has written extensively on how to improve reasoning in child protection work, covering how best to combine intuitive and analytic reasoning and also on the importance of understanding how the organisational system influences workers’ actions. In 2011, she completed the Munro Review of the English Child Protection System. She has since been working with the Signs of Safety organisation on whole system re-design to support Signs of Safety practice with families, thereby testing the feasibility of implementing her Review recommendations. Returning to her roots in philosophy, Eileen is also working in a 5-year philosophy of social technology project that is exploring the implications of complex causality for using research findings in a new location and how this challenges traditional evidence-based practice.

Rohan Sivanandan worked as an economist and senior executive in the private sector before moving into the education field. He worked across all phases of education, latterly as an education chief officer. Subsequently, Rohan set up his own consultancy specialising in organisational development, training and leadership coaching. He has been a school governor, trustee/director of a children’s charity, an arts charity trustee, a BAME mentor and sports coach.

Currently, he is a magistrate in criminal and family court; chairs panels on the Lord Chancellor’s Magistrates’ Advisory Committee for London; is an independent member of the Greater London Authority on Mayoral appointments; chairs Mental Health hearings and is an awards assessor for the Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence.

Cafcass was created under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. The body safeguards and promotes the welfare of children involved in family court proceedings.

These appointments have been conducted in accordance with the Cabinet Office Governance Code on Public Appointments.

None of the appointees has declared any political activity.

The Monetary Policy Committee met on 19 March 2020 and agreed to implement a package of monetary policy stimulus measures which required an increase in the asset purchase facility limit. This prompted an exchange of letters between the Governor of the Bank of England and the Chancellor on 19 March 2020.

After more than 10 years as our flagship newsletter, this is our last quarterly edition of eNews before its relaunch in April as an exciting monthly round-up of news stories, case studies, blogs and insights. Fittingly therefore, this edition starts with a spotlight on GAD’s communications strategy – discussing the role eNews plays, our achievements so far, and providing a flavour of how things will look in the future.

Following this, we have a feature article discussing how the work of our staff transfer specialists helps achieve a smooth transition of public pension rights for employees who are moving within the public sector, or whose jobs have been outsourced to the private sector.

Our last article considers what it takes to be a learning organisation, and how GAD is working to foster a learning ethos within both our individuals and our department.

This year’s operation identified a disturbing trend of criminals who are taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak by exploiting the high market demand for personal protection and hygiene products.

Operation Pangea XIII took place from March 3 to 10 and involved police, customs and health regulatory authorities from 90 countries, all aiming to prevent the activity of illicit online sales of medicines and medical products. Counterfeit face masks and unauthorised antiviral medication were all seized under the operation.

Globally, 2,000 online advertisements related to COVID-19 were found and more than 34,000 unlicensed and fake products, advertised as “corona spray”, “coronavirus medicines” or, “coronaviruses packages” were seized. Whilst there were no coronavirus related products found to have reached UK borders on this occasion, Operation Pangea aims to tackle serious organized crime globally and the MHRA plays a big role in ensuring unlicensed medicines and medical devices are not making their way onto UK markets.

In the UK the MHRA Enforcement team and colleagues from UK Border Force found 871,616 doses of unlicensed medicines with a value of £2.6m and additionally took down 294 websites and removed 1031 social media adverts online offering medicines illegally. Working alongside police officers the MHRA team executed seven warrants leading to two arrests as part of investigations linked to the illegal online sale of medicines, resulting in the seizure of anti-anxiety, sedatives and weight loss products.

Fake medicines included anti-depressants, erectile dysfunction tablets, painkillers and anabolic steroids all seized by officers from the MHRA and UK Border Force. The seizures were part of Interpol’s globally coordinated Operation Pangea targeting the illegal sale online of fake and illegal medicines and devices.

The majority of seizures made during the operation were unlicensed copies of erectile dysfunction medication totalling 611,888 doses. Other significant seizures included medicines to treat insomnia (88,160 doses) and pain relief medication (26,005).

Mark Jackson, Head of Enforcement at the MHRA, said:

Criminals who sell medicines and devices illegally are not only breaking the law but have no regard for your health and will take advantage of a major public health crisis to make a profit. Taking fake or unlicensed medicines and using a non-compliant medical device could put your health and safety in danger and may lead to serious health issues.

Our intelligence-led operations across the UK have seized millions of fake and unlicensed medicines. The MHRA is committed to working with our international partners and UK Border Force to prevent fake medicines from entering the UK and to identify illicit websites offering to sell and supply medicines and medical devices illegally.

The MHRA’s #FakeMeds campaign aims to encourage people in the UK who choose to buy medication online to take steps to make sure they are purchasing from safe and legitimate sources. The campaign also highlights the dangers of fake medicines sold online and the negative health effects that taking them can have. It also encourages people to report suspected dodgy drugs, and any side effects experienced to the Yellow Card scheme

MHRA safety advice when buying medicines:

Be careful when buying medicines online

Medicines and medical devices are not ordinary consumer goods and their sale and supply is tightly controlled. Websites operating outside the legal supply chain may seem tempting, for example prescription medicine is offered without a prescription. Not only are they breaking the law – they are putting your health at risk.

Do not self-prescribe

Self-diagnosis and self-medication can be very dangerous. If you have a concern about your health, visit your GP, get a correct diagnosis and if medicines are prescribed, buy them from a legitimate source.

Visit the #FakeMeds website for tools and resources to help people purchase medication or medical devices safely online.

Ends

Notes to Editor

1. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe. All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.

2. MHRA is a centre of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency which also includes the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC)and the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.

3. Operation Pangea is an international initiative to target the illegal internet trade in medicines. It was instigated by the MHRA in April 2006 and started as the UK Internet Day of Action (IDA).The annual operation is the largest internet based enforcement action of its kind to date and was coordinated by INTERPOL, together with the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the Permanent Forum of International Pharmaceutical Crime (PFIPC), the Heads of Medicines Agencies Working Group of Enforcement Officers (WGEO), Europol and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), and supported by the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and private sector companies including LegitScript, Google, Mastercard, Visa, American Express and PayPal.

4. The #FakeMeds campaign is a public health campaign which aims to reduce the harm caused by purchasing fake, unlicensed or counterfeit medical products online. The current phase the #FakeMeds campaign focuses on the issue of fake erectile dysfunction (ED) medicines and raises awareness of the prevalence of fake ED medicines online, encouraging audiences to buy from legitimate sources. Previous phases of the campaign have focused on dodgy diet pills and fake self-testing STI kits. Follow #FakeMeds on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

5. The Yellow Card scheme helps the MHRA monitor the safety of all healthcare products in the UK to ensure they are acceptably safe for patients and those that use them