Decision details

The recruitment and retention of sufficient social care staff with the appropriate skills, knowledge and behaviours is critical to improving adult social care capacity.

The DHSC have strongly encouraged local authorities to work closely with providers to use this additional funding to grow workforce capacity and they expect growth in workforce capacity to support more local authorities to cope with potential winter challenges in the short-term.

The main challenges currently within the Halton adult social care sector are Older People Care Home capacity (Residential and Nursing), with a number of units closed due to lack of staffing capacity, along with Domiciliary Care staffing capacity.

It is therefore proposed that this funding is allocated to Older People Care Homes (External and Internal Care Homes) in the Borough, along with Halton’s contracted Domiciliary Care provider, to support workforce capacity.

It is anticipated that improving workforce capacity in these areas will also have a positive impact on hospital discharge pathways and associated waiting times.

NB. This decision applies to the 2023/24 funding only.

The reason why this decision needs to be made is that the DHSC require confirmation of how the monies are to be spent by the end of September, so there is not the opportunity to present to Executive Board in advance of this.

There is a clear risk with using the funding to increase fees rates paid to adult social care providers, due to the temporary nature of this funding, so this option has been rejected.

There is a clear risk with using the funding to increase fees rates paid to adult social care providers, due to the temporary nature of this funding, so this option has been rejected.