Councillors and committees

Decision details

Surrey County Council Response to Covid: Age UK Surrey information and advice service

Decision Maker: Cabinet

Decision status: Recommendations approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

On 1st March 2022 the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC) published details of the ADULT SOCIAL CARE OMICRON SUPPORT FUND.  This was the final specific ASC Covid funding stream.

 

Surrey County Council (SCC) has received £1m of Omicron Support Fund monies.  Funding was provided so that “Local authorities have discretion to use the funding as needed locally, to support the adult social care sector, including relevant local authority staff, in its COVID-19 response, and in particular increased challenges posed by the Omicron variant”.

 

The funding was unringfenced and did not have to be spent within a set period.  When the funding was received, the Council was paying out the final allocations of the Infection Control and Testing Fund 3 and Recruitment & Retention Fund round 2 funding streams to ASC providers.  It was agreed therefore that Omicron Support Fund monies would be retained on the balance sheet so they could be utilised to support ASC providers in the early part of the 2022/23 financial year.

 

As with all previous Covid grant funding streams, the Council consulted with the Surrey Care Association to seek views on the best way to dispense the limited grant funds across Surrey’s broad ASC provider base.  Following this consultation the Adults Leadership Team determined that given this funding stream is unringfenced it would be most appropriate to invite all ASC providers to bid for funds against a set of criteria.  Providers were invited to submit applications for a funding allocation towards:

•The cost of staff sickness in April 2022.

•Hardship payments to pass onto staff members who have suffered loss of earnings due to sickness and/or the need to self-isolate.

•The cost of facilitating safe visiting in April 2022, with the option to submit a claim for the period May-June 2022 as well if funds could accommodate.

•Other cost pressures caused by the pandemic in April 2022, with the option to submit a claim for the period May-June 2022 as well if funds could accommodate.

 

Due to the limited value of grant funds, a decision was taken to prioritise funding for providers who provide services to residents whose care is funded by the Council.  This was made clear on the application form.

 

An online form was prepared to gather applications and this form was sent to providers on 20th May 2022 inviting them to apply with a deadline of 10th June 2022.

 

Applications were received from 165 providers, totalling £3.1m.

Decision:

It was AGREED that:

 

ASC would make a one off payment of £18.9k to Age UK Surrey to reimburse the charity for costs incurred due to purchase of laptops and mobile phones to enable virtual operation of their information and advice service to people aged 50+ and carers across Surrey during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The payment will be outside of the normal payments made to Age UK for the information & advice service and the intention is for this payment to be funded out the COVID-19 funding SCC is receiving from government.

 

Reasons for the decision:

Reasons for Decision:

 

To ensure residents can continue to access the information and advice service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Alternative options considered:

The alternative is to not reimburse Age UK Surrey for the additional costs and leave the charity to try to find alternative means for funding them.  This could put the continued delivery of the information and advice service at risk.

 

Interests and Nature of Interests Declared:

None

 

Publication date: 14/05/2020

Date of decision: 30/04/2020

Accompanying Documents: