A package of new measures have been announced to help protect the social care sector from coronavirus, including £300 million to help recruit and reward the workforce.

Specialist vaccination teams are being expanded and deployed to guarantee all care home residents and staff, as well as people who are housebound and their caregivers, are offered the booster – with those most at risk prioritised for the jab.

Care homes will be able to request follow up booster visits from vaccination teams for staff and residents and home visit payments for GPs will be increased to further ramp up the home care programme.

Care workers will benefit from a £300 million extension, in addition to the £162.5 million announced in October, to support recruitment and retention. It can be used to pay for bonuses and bring forward planned pay rises for care staff, fund overtime and staff banks increasing workforce numbers up until the end of March.

In light of a new wave of the virus, visits to care homes will continue under updated guidance that permits three visitors and an essential care giver per resident, in order to balance the current coronavirus risk and the need to keep people safe in line with clinical advice.

Care settings will also be given extra guidance for infection prevention and control measures and PPE.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Throughout the pandemic we have done everything we can to protect the adult social care sector, and the emergence of the Omicron variant means this is more important than ever. This new funding will support our incredible workforce by recruiting new staff and rewarding those who have done so much during this pandemic. Boosting the booster rollout in social care and updating the visiting guidance will help keep the most vulnerable people in our society safe from the virus this winter.”