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Wednesday 29 July 2020 08:30
The government has been accused of throwing care homes “to the wolves” during the coronavirus pandemic by a damning new cross-party report.
The release of 25,000 people from hospitals into care homes in the early weeks of the Covid-19 crisis was an “appalling error”, the Public Accounts Committee has said, as individuals were not tested for the virus before they were discharged.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is set to advertise for a £100,000-a-year media spokesperson.
Additional 1.5 million children should have free school meals, review finds
A further 1.5 million children should receive school meals and some young people should be fed during the school holidays following the financial impact of the pandemic, a government-ordered review has said.
The recommendations were given to the government by the National Food Strategy, which is led by Henry Dimbleby, the founder of the Leon restaurant chain.
“The effects of hunger on young bodies (and minds) are serious and long-lasting, and exacerbate social inequalities,” it warned.
The Independent’s Jane Kirby has more on the story here:
Bike repair scheme gets off to faulty start
The government’s cycling scheme has got off to a faulty start, as a website offering £50 bike repair vouchers crashed at its launch.
As part of the £2 billion initiative to encourage active travel, 50,000 of these vouchers have been made available.
However, customers struggled to access them online on the Department for Transport’s website.
The site was supposed to go live at 11.45pm on Tuesday evening but people received an “Error 404” message when they attempted to apply for a voucher.
The number of complaints meant that the hashtag #FixYourBikeVoucherScheme was the number one trend on Twitter in the UK just after midnight.
Government condemned for throwing care homes ‘to the wolves’
Ministers have been accused of taking a “negligent” approach to social care during the coronavirus crisis, writes Ashley Cowburn.
The criticism came in a damning report by the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, which listed a catalogue of mistakes, including the lack of testing for patients discharged from hospitals into care homes.
Committee chair Meg Hillier called the failure to provide adequate protective equipment for workers and volunteers “a sad, low moment in our national response”.
The Alzheimer’s Society said “catastrophic loss of life” had occurred in care homes after they were “abandoned” at the start of the outbreak.
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