Purpose

Proposed Decision:
 
Accept the Urgent and Emergency
Care Funding under the terms set out by the Department of Health
and Social Care and delegate authority to the Corporate Director
Adult Social Care and Health to develop plans to deploy the grant
funding and take relevant actions, including but not limited to
entering into and finalising the terms
of relevant contracts or other legal agreements, as necessary to
implement the decision.
 
Background:
 
In July 2023 the Department of
Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced £600m of funding over
two years to enable local authorities to go further in improving
adult social care capacity. In that announcement, the DHSC said
that it intended to make £30m of this funding available this
year to local authorities in areas with the greatest health and
care challenges. The DHSC subsequently increased the available
funding by £10m to provide for a £40m fund. The
£40 million will enable selected local authorities to support
urgent and emergency care performance and resilience for residents
over the winter period. The intention is to provide targeted
funding for local authorities in areas with the greatest urgent and
emergency care challenges.
 
Local authorities were invited
to develop proposals, in which they were expected to agree with the
relevant Integrated Care Board (ICB) and provide evidence of ICB
views on the proposals in their application form.
 
Assessment criteria for
proposals:
·        
Impact on urgent and emergency care resilience and
performance over the winter  period, whether by helping prevent
avoidable admissions or by reducing discharge delays
·        
Are deliverable over the winter 2023/24 period
·        
Are additional to existing LA expenditure and
capacity plans and linked to NHS winter surge plans and Better Care
Fund demand and capacity plans, for example by addressing gaps
identified in those plans. Section 151 officers will be required to
assure that funding has been used to purchase additional services
and capacity in line with the MoU
 
Adult social care, in agreement
with the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, has submitted a
proposal to support the resilience of urgent and emergency care
services across Kent. The funding will be targeted in areas of Kent
with the most challenged performance (East Kent) of urgent and
emergency care services and to address capacity gaps across the
county.
 
The alternative was to not
submit a proposal, however this would
have a significant negative impact on the resilience of urgent and
emergency care services in Kent over the winter period.
 
The proposed decision supports
Priority 4 of Framing Kent’s Future
to ensure that adults who draw on social care
support lead the lives they want to live, by putting their needs at
the heart of everything we do, whilst successfully innovating and
responding to the challenges to social care funding.
 
 
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and
Public Health, I:
a) ACCEPT the Urgent and Emergency Care
Funding under the terms set out by the Department of Health and
Social Care and
b) DELEGATE authority to the Corporate
Director Adult Social Care and Health to develop plans to deploy
the grant funding and take relevant actions, including but not
limited to entering into and finalising
the terms of relevant contracts or other legal agreements, as
necessary to implement the decision.