Decisions

The Home Office has introduced a Community Sponsorship Scheme whereby local community groups can take responsibility to welcome and support refugee families from conflict-ridden regions directly into their communities. This complements resettlement work that has been undertaken by local authorities as part of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS). Surrey County Council and Surrey’s Districts and Boroughs have been active participants in the VPR Scheme since 2015 and over 100 families have been resettled in Surrey.   The Community Sponsorship Scheme was paused by the Home Office during the pandemic and is now being reintroduced. 

A faith group has identified a house to accommodate a refugee family in Mole Valley and has prepared an application to the Home Office for Community Sponsorship. The group is seeking the Council’s consent to be a Community Sponsor in line with Home Office requirements.  Surrey County Council agreed on 22 January 2019 to encourage and enable Community Sponsorship and gave consent to a previous prospective Community Sponsor in Mole Valley. 

It was AGREED that:

1.           The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning gives consent to a prospective Community Sponsor in Mole Valley subject to them meeting the Home Office criteria for that consent.

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.

The Education and Lifelong Learning Service is responding to a consultation on the process for paying business rates on school premises. This would mean DfE paying billing authorities directly (and subtracting the cost from local authority Dedicated Schools Grant allocations). The proposed change is largely a change of administrative process and should have little impact on the overall education funding for Surrey, although some assurances are needed on the technical detail.

Decision made:

It was AGREED to submit the proposed attached response to the consultation outlined above.

Reasons for Decision:

The responses to the consultation will be submitted to Government so that it can be considered in relation to any future decision on the proposal.