Policy paper

[Withdrawn] Free personal protective equipment scheme

Updated 4 March 2024

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

This policy paper was withdrawn on

The free personal protective equipment (PPE) scheme ended on 31 March 2024. See further information from NHS Supply Chain on PPE transition.

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-scheme/free-personal-protective-equipment-scheme

The primary legislation used to invoke this scheme were section 2 and section 2A of the National Health Service Act 2006.

Objective

The purpose of the scheme is to support the government’s COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19 strategy during a challenging period of global inflation and cost of living pressures.

The continued provision of free personal protective equipment (PPE) for coronavirus (COVID-19) will:

  • protect frontline healthcare staff, the elderly and vulnerable
  • reduce pressure on the NHS

The government considers that ensuring that health and social care providers, community pharmacies and public sector organisations have access to PPE for COVID-19 infection control is important in controlling the spread of COVID-19, and in turn the impact on public health, the economy and social wellbeing.

Background

Based on guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other bodies and agencies expert in epidemiology and infection control, enhanced and revised infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance for the use of PPE in health and social care services, community pharmacies and public sector organisations was introduced in early March 2020.

This IPC guidance was issued jointly by:

  • the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
  • Public Health Wales (PHW)
  • Public Health Agency (PHA) Northern Ireland
  • Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and National Services Scotland
  • Public Health England (PHE)
  • NHS England

The IPC guidance and requirements aimed to control the spread of COVID-19 through preventing cross-infection and other forms of contamination. The guidance and requirements, among other things, require significantly increased use of PPE for COVID-19 infection control, including the use of different types of medical or clinical-grade PPE from those used before the outbreak.

On 27 May 2022, the National infection prevention and control manual (NIPCM) for England guidance replaced the previous IPC guidance for PPE. The UK antimicrobial 5-year national action plan, published in January 2019, stated that the Scottish NIPCM would be adopted in England as national standards.

The NIPCM has been adapted for use within England to support and facilitate healthcare providers to demonstrate compliance with the 10 criteria of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 code of practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance.

Failure to comply with this guidance may leave health and social care providers exposed to investigation and sanctions by, for example, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or other agencies responsible for the regulation of health and social care providers, including a revocation of provider registration, and could have an impact on commissioning decisions made by the NHS and local authorities.

In 2020, with the wholesale market struggling to respond to the increase in demand for PPE created by the pandemic, and to ensure the viability of services in the face of soaring costs, DHSC purchased a significant stock of COVID-19 PPE.

Such stock was for COVID-19 use by those working in the health and social care sector and their patients, clients or other consumers of the services, to:

  • ensure safe working conditions
  • protect them from infection
  • should they be infected, mitigate the spread of the disease

This stock was centrally funded and provided free of charge to eligible health and care providers. DHSC originally committed to providing this COVID-19-related PPE free of charge until 31 March 2021.

Extension of the scheme

The government has since extended the provision of free PPE for all health, social care and public sector workers to support their COVID-19 needs: first until the end of June 2021, then until the end of March 2022 and, in January 2022, this was extended until the end of March 2023 or until the NIPCM guidance was withdrawn or significantly amended (whichever was sooner). Most recently, the scheme was extended until DHSC’s stocks are depleted or until the end of March 2024 (whichever is sooner).

The first extension, until the end of June 2021, was made in anticipation of high COVID-19 infection rates remaining through April to June 2021, with demand for PPE also remaining high in response as well as due to new demands coming online such as mass testing and the vaccine rollout.

The free PPE provision was reviewed again in April 2021 and in December 2021, resulting in the 2 further extensions. Similar to the first extension, pressures on the health and social care sector were expected to remain high, with the risk of new variants emerging and potential new waves. There was particular concern about the impact of winter 2021 and the Omicron variant of concern. IPC guidance – now NIPCM guidance – was also not expected to change during this time and therefore demand for PPE would remain high. The decision was consequently taken to extend for a longer period to ensure health and care workers would have the PPE they needed to keep safe through the latest wave of COVID-19 and to see them through the winter.

The most recent extension to March 2024 is to support the government’s COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19 strategy during a challenging period of global inflation and cost of living pressures.

While the PPE supply chain has now stabilised, our aim is to make sure that health and social care workers continue to receive the PPE they need. Continued government intervention in the PPE market has limited other actors in this part of the market. In 2023 to 2024, DHSC will only be supplying PPE until its stocks are depleted – this transitional approach will support the move towards living with COVID-19 and allow other actors to enter the COVID-19 PPE market.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of the PPE scheme are health and social care providers, community pharmacies and public sector organisations providing services as part of the state’s prerogative.

The health and social care activities covered by the scheme are:

  • NHS trusts

  • general medical practice activities

  • dental practice activities (including orthodontic activities)

  • residential care activities (both adult and child)

  • social work activities without accommodation (but not including child day care activities, which do not involve an element of social care)

  • other health activities – specifically, optometry, activities of nurses performed in general practice, including within the community, and activities of dental paramedical personal such as dental hygienists, including, for the avoidance of doubt, hospices

Additionally, the scheme includes community pharmacies.

Healthcare providers and community pharmacies are eligible if they are remunerated by the state. Adult and child social care providers are always eligible.

Finally, the PPE scheme covers public sector organisations providing services as part of the state’s prerogative, such as police services and the prison service.

Budget

The value of the free PPE scheme for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2023 is around £471,385,725.53.

NHS trusts are not included within budgeted costs as they are not subject to subsidy control rules.

The value of the scheme for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024 will be published in 2023 to 2024.

Functioning

The aid takes the form of free distribution of clinical or medical-grade PPE, consisting of gloves, masks, eye protection, respirators, aprons and gowns to eligible beneficiaries.

DHSC will publish further information about stock-out dates by PPE category (when we expect to run out of specific types of PPE) by April 2023.

NHS trusts are supplied through an auto-replenishment model through the PPE Dedicated Supply Channel. All other eligible beneficiaries can access free PPE through the PPE portal.

See guidance and further information about accessing free PPE and the PPE portal, including order limits for individual sectors and the products available to each sector.

Eligible health and social care providers, community pharmacies and public sector organisations providing services as part of the state’s prerogative can request to be included in the scheme. They can order PPE with DHSC, which will provide them with regular supplies of PPE, based on modelled requirements and set order limits, allocated according to the:

  • size of the beneficiary
  • estimated number of interactions between the beneficiary and each patient or service user
  • types of PPE and number of PPE changes per day required by the guidance

These are then checked against estimated pre-COVID-19 PPE usages by sector or type of service in line with other infection control guidance.

We encourage providers to only order PPE based on current demand. DHSC will not accept returns of unused or expired PPE. Order limits will continue to apply and order volumes will be monitored.

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