UK coronavirus live: Johnson criticised after claiming care homes did not follow procedures during Covid crisis
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, is under pressure to confirm he will pass on a £59m support package the UK government has announced to the arts in Wales.
Drakeford said at his press conference on Monday the Welsh government would decide how any additional money is spent only after UK chancellor Rishi Sunak gives his summer economic update later this week. He said:
I want to wait until we see the whole package, then cabinet will sit down, knowing how much money we have at our disposal, and attend to the many demands there are for help here in Wales, including help that is needed by the arts sector.
When the UK government announces a headline figure, what they very often don’t tell us is what is new money, and what is money that they are simply recycling from existing budgets.
It’s why I’m reluctant today to commit to saying anything on the £59m, because so easily on Wednesday we could learn that we are losing money from other changes made at Whitehall and there won’t be £59m after all.
The Welsh Conservatives leader, Paul Davies, said: “No ifs or buts. The Welsh government needs to urgently see to the 59m reaching out cultural venues.”
An open letter from Plaid Cymru calling for the money to be spent on the arts sector “in full” has been backed by the singer Charlotte Church and Catrin Finch, the former official harpist to the Prince of Wales.
In Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has said that the £97m it is getting as its share of the arts package will be passed on in full to arts organisations. (See 1.31pm.)
Hotels and private venues will be allowed to hold weddings in Northern Ireland from July 10, the first minister, Arlene Foster, has said.
Arlene Foster #We’llMeetAgain
(@DUPleader)Executive meeting just over. Good news for couples waiting to get married. 🎉 😃 pic.twitter.com/ERRsgFlpv2
July 6, 2020
The Welsh government will suspend school categorisation for the 2020/21 academic year, as part of its measures to reduce pressure on schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Every year, primary and secondary schools are measured against a range of factors and placed into one of four colour-coded categories – red, amber, yellow, green.
The system is designed to help identify schools that need the most support and guidance, those doing well but could be doing better and those that are highly effective and can act as support to other schools.
Kirsty Williams, the education minister, said:
My priority is to allow staff to focus their energies on the needs of pupils during these extraordinary and challenging times.
I am committed to help reduce the administrative workload on education settings, where it is appropriate and safe to do so.
Boris Johnson has been criticised by the care home sector for suggesting they were partly to blame for the spread of coronavirus among their residents.
Asked today for his reaction to Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, saying yesterday that he wanted to see plans to adequately fund the adult social care sector within a year, Johnson replied:
One of the things the crisis has shown is we need to think about how we organise our social care package better and how we make sure we look after people better who are in social care.
We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have but we’re learning lessons the whole time.
Most important is to fund them properly … but we will also be looking at ways to make sure the care sector long term is properly organised and supported.
In response Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, which represents the not-for-profit care sector, said Johnson was wrong to say care homes ignored procedures. She said:
Mr Johnson’s comments in relation to care homes’ following of procedures are neither accurate nor welcome.
Government guidance has come to the sector in stops and starts – with organisations grappling with over 100 pieces of additional guidance in the same number of days, much of which was not accompanied by an understanding of the operational implications of operating care services.
Care providers have moved to adopt these new procedures consistently, at pace and with integrity.
The Independent Care Group (ICG), which represents care providers in Yorkshire, also criticised Johnson. Its chairman, Mike Padgham, said:
We should not be getting into the blame game and it is wrong to criticise care and nursing homes at this time.
It is worth remembering that in February the government agency Public Health England told homes it was ‘very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become infected’ and that homes didn’t need to do anything differently.
It was many weeks later, after most homes had already put themselves into lockdown, that the advice changed.
Padgham said it was only when the real death toll in care homes became apparent that the government accepted social care was as much on the front line as hospitals. He went on:
Care providers may not have got everything perfect but neither has the government.
For far too much of this pandemic, providers were operating in the dark over what they ought to do and with one arm behind their backs in terms of the support they were given. In those circumstances, they have worked miracles.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has ordered an urgent audit of statues, street and building names to address Wales’s connections with the slave trade.
Drakeford said:
The Black Lives Matter movement has brought to the fore a number of important issues we need to address as a country. One is the need for Wales to reflect on the visible reminders of the country’s past. This is especially true when we look at the horrors of the slave trade.
Some of our historic buildings are reminders of this painful period of our history. Some may appear to make heroes of historical figures whose actions we now condemn. Individuals connected to the slave trade may be remembered in street names or the names of public buildings. They are commemorations of a past that we have not fully challenged and that we should challenge now.
Read the original article at The Guardian