Decision details

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.

It was agreed that SCC would utilise the £4.3m of Infection Control Fund round 3 that is due to be received as follows:

Ø  The £2.4m of funding ringfenced for care homes will be allocated to all care homes that comply with the grant conditions on a per registered bed basis.

Ø  The £0.6m of funding ringfenced for community care providers will be allocated to all community care providers that comply with the grant conditions.  Funding will be allocated to home care and extra care housing providers based on the number of FTE care workers they employ to support Surrey residents and to supported living providers based on SCC’s annual expenditure on care packages commissioned with each provider as at the 1^st April 2021.

Ø  The £1.3m of discretionary funding will be allocated to community care providers in addition to the ringfenced amounts paid, as well as to day care and supported housing provides based on applications made for funding.

It was agreed that SCC would utilise the £3.3m of Rapid Testing Fund round 3 that is due to be received as follows:

Ø  The £2.5m of funding ringfenced for care homes will be allocated to all care homes that comply with the grant conditions on a per registered bed basis.

Ø  The £0.8m of discretionary funding will be paid to community care, day care and supported housing providers who confirm they are conducting rapid lateral flow testing and/or PCR testing and apply for funding.  Funding will be allocated to home care and extra care housing providers based on the number of FTE care workers they employ to support Surrey residents and to supported living providers based on SCC’s annual expenditure on care packages commissioned with each provider as at the 1^st April 2021.  Any funds remaining based on responses from community care, day care and supported housing providers will be added to the ringfenced funding for care homes.

All providers have been asked to complete an online form to SCC to confirm they wish to apply for ICF4 and RTF3 funding and that they will comply with the grant conditions.  Funding will only be paid to those providers who complete this online form.  SCC will track compliance in terms of completion of the capacity tracker, with particular attention paid to completion of the fields in relating to levels of Covid vaccination take up amongst care staff and care home residents.  SCC will closely monitor reporting of expenditure by providers and recover funds from any providers who do not comply with grant conditions along with any funds not spent by providers by 30^th September 2021.  SCC will then either repay this funding to DHSC or as has been the case with previous grant cycles seek permission from DHSC to pay unspent monies to providers who have declared higher levels of eligible expenditure than their standard grant allocations.

To support COVID-19 infection control in ASC services across Surrey and ensure SCC is compliant with DHSC’s grant conditions.

SCC must spend the Infection Control Fund grant in line with the grant conditions and all funding must be fully spent by 30^th September 2021.

There are only two areas where SCC could have taken an alternative decision.

Firstly, the methodology for allocating funding to community care providers.

Secondly, how the discretionary funding is spent.

In both cases, the decisions reflected in this paper are considered the most appropriate to support ASC providers in Surrey based on market intelligence and through conversations with the Surrey Care Association.

None.