Sturgeon announces extra £50m to help care sector

Nicola Sturgeon has announced an extra £50m is being made available to help the care sector deal with coronavirus.

She also used her daily briefing to reveal there will be further funding for a scheme set up to help small businesses.

The First Minister said the social care sector was “under immense pressure” as a result of Covid-19.

She insisted the Scottish Government was “working hard to support the sector in every way we can”, with increased testing in care homes and supplies of personal protective equipment for them as well.

Announcing the extra cash, she said this would “help meet extra costs in the care sector that have been incurred as a result of Covid-19”.

Money will go to all 32 of Scotland’s councils, to cover both care homes and care at home services.

“It will help to ensure that care services around the country can cope with the immense pressures that they are facing at this time,” she said.

Sturgeon also said there would be £31m to extend eligibility for the small business grant scheme.

This will apply to those properties eligible for charitable or sports rate relief, with the FM saying: “Charities occupying these properties can now receive small business grants.”

Organisations can receive £10,000 for their first property and £7500 for any subsequent properties they own.

“We know many charities which run small premises, like day centres, offices or workshops have been really hard hit by a loss of revenue during the pandemic,” Sturgeon said.

“Many of these charities, which include providers of health and care services, are still providing vital support to those who need it.

“So extending the small business grant scheme is one way in which we can help them at a time when the help they provide is more important than ever.”

During the briefing Sturgeon also revealed another 50 people have died with Covid-19 in Scotland in the past 24 hours.

It takes the death toll of confirmed coronavirus cases to 1912, but including suspected Covid-19 deaths the total is 3136.

The number of people who have tested positive for the virus in Scotland is up 136 in the last 24 hours to stand at 13,763.

A total of 1618 people are in hospital overall with confirmed or suspected Covid-19.

Patients in intensive care either with the virus or believed to have the virus have increased by one to 81.