Annex A: grant determination
Updated 1 April 2022
Applies to England
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Determination under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 of a ring-fenced infection control grant to local authorities for 31/5765
The Minister of State for Care and Mental Health (“the Minister of State”), in exercise of the powers conferred by section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003, makes the following determination:
Citation
1. This determination may be cited as the Adult Social Care Extension to Infection Control and Testing Grant Determination 31/5765.
Purpose of the grant
2. The purpose of the grant is to provide support to adult social care providers, including those with whom the local authority does not have a contract, to: (a) reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission within and between care settings through effective infection prevention and control practices and increase COVID-19 and flu vaccine uptake among staff; and (b) conduct testing of staff and visitors in care settings to identify and isolate positive cases, and in order to enable close contact visiting where possible. The grant must only be used to support care providers to tackle the risks of COVID-19 infections and enable close-contact visiting. Funding will be distributed to local authorities in England, to ensure that funding reaches adult social care providers in their area.
3. In order to ensure that the relevant infection prevention and control, and testing measures are put in place as quickly as possible, local authorities should make the relevant payments to providers within twenty working days of receipt of these allocations, unless the provider has not complied with the relevant conditions. All expenditure financed by this grant should be incurred on or before 31 March 2022. Any funds not used at this point will be recovered by the Department and local authorities must have measures in place to allow this to happen efficiently.
Determination
4. The authorities to which grants are to be paid and the amount of grants to be paid, are set out in annex B. The grant will be paid in October 2021.
Grant conditions
5. Pursuant to section 31(4) of the Local Government Act 2003, the Minister of State determines that the grants will be paid subject to the conditions in annex C.
6. This grant consists of 3 distinct allocations of funding – infection prevention and control (IPC) funding, testing funding and vaccines funding.
7. Subject to the conditions in this grant determination being satisfied, local authorities should pass the direct funding portion of the IPC allocation straight to care homes within the local authority’s geographical area on a ‘per beds’ basis, and to CQC-regulated community care providers within the local authority’s geographical area on a ‘per user’ basis, including to social care providers with whom the local authority does not have existing contracts. This funding must only be used for the specific COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures specified in annex C. The local authority has the discretion to target the allocation of the remaining 30% of the IPC allocation on other COVID-19 IPC measures for the care sector, including supporting other care settings and providing additional support to care providers who are currently experiencing an outbreak.
8. Subject to the conditions in this grant determination being satisfied, local authorities should pass the direct funding portion of the vaccines allocation straight to care homes within the local authority’s geographical area on a ‘per beds’ basis, and to CQC-regulated community care providers within the local authority’s geographical area on a ‘per user’ basis, including to social care providers with whom the local authority does not have existing contracts. This funding must only be used for the specific COVID-19 and flu vaccines measures specified in annex C. The local authority has the discretion to target the allocation of the remaining 30% of the vaccines allocation to support staff in other care settings with the vaccines measures outlined in annex C.
9. Subject to the conditions in this grant determination being satisfied, local authorities should pass the direct funding portion of the testing allocation straight to care homes within the local authority’s geographical area on a ‘per beds’ basis, including to social care providers with whom the local authority does not have existing contracts. At a national level, this represents 70% of the testing allocation. However, this will vary by local authority, depending on how many of each type of setting there is within the local authority’s geographical area. This funding must only be used for the specific testing measures specified in annex C. The local authority has the discretion to target the allocation of the remaining portion (as indicated in annex B) of the testing allocation to support the care sector to operationally deliver testing.
10. The local authority must not make any payment to a provider unless they have completed the Capacity Tracker at least twice and committed to doing so once per week until 31 March 2022.
11. If at any point the local authority reasonably believes that any part of this grant is not being used for its intended purpose, they should work with that provider to determine whether this is the case, and if necessary, take all reasonable steps to recover any misspent amounts.
12. Providers must account for all payments paid out of the ‘per beds’ or ‘per user’ allocation (as applicable) and keep appropriate records. In so far as a provider does not use the entirety of the ‘per beds’ or ‘per user’ allocation in pursuit of IPC, vaccines or testing measures (as applicable), any remaining funds must be returned to the local authority. Local authorities must ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to enable them, if necessary, to recover any unspent monies.
13. None of the funding provided directly to providers is to be used for any purpose other than the specified IPC, vaccines and testing measures. The IPC allocation cannot be used to pay for testing measures, and the testing allocation cannot be used to pay for IPC measures, either at a provider or local authority level.
Treasury consent
14. Before making this determination in relation to local authorities in England, the Minister of State obtained the consent of the Treasury.
Signed by authority of the Minister of State for Care and Mental Health, Gillian Keegan
Hester Wadge, Deputy Director for Social Care Funding and Legislation, Department of Health and Social Care
21 October 2021