Guidance

Adult Social Care Omicron Support Fund: guidance

Updated 1 March 2022

Applies to England

This guidance applies to the Omicron Support Fund, which was paid to local authorities in January 2022. While local authorities are not required to report on this grant beyond 31 March 2022, this guidance is preserved here for reference.

Background

In October 2021, the Infection Control and Testing Fund was extended until 31 March 2022, with an extra £388 million of funding to support the care sector to put in place crucial measures over the winter period, bringing the total ring-fenced funding for infection prevention and control to almost £1.5 billion and support for testing to almost £400 million in care settings.

Furthermore, to boost the workforce through the winter until the end of March 2022, we announced the first and second Workforce Recruitment and Retention Funds to support local authorities to address adult social care workforce capacity pressures in their geographical area through recruitment and retention activity in winter 2021 to 2022. These were worth £162.5 million and £300 million respectively.

In recognition of the increased pressure on existing funding sources caused by the Omicron variant, the government announced on 29 December 2021 that it is providing £60 million additional funding for January 2022. The government will continue to monitor the progress of Omicron and its potential impact on the care sector.

The purpose of this fund is to support the sector with measures already covered by the infection prevention and control (IPC) allocation of the Infection Control and Testing Fund (round 3) to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission within and between care settings through effective IPC practices. Additionally, this funding may also be used to increase ventilation in care homes, and to enhance local authorities’ current direct payment offer particularly when the only way a person’s care needs can be met is by a friend or family member, or to enhance support for carers. It may also be used to pay for temporary staffing to cover increased staff absence caused by COVID-19 and maintain staffing levels and workforce capacity.

This is a new grant that is separate and in addition to the existing:

• Infection Control and Testing Fund (round 3)
• Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund
• Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund (round 2)

Nature of the funding

The funding will be paid in full in January 2022. We want local authorities to make use of this funding as quickly as possible, and as such have minimised conditions and reporting requirements.

Local authorities should work closely with providers, at pace, to ensure that additional support is made available to the adult social care sector. As part of this, local authorities may want to pass on funding directly to adult social care providers in their geographical area.  

Guidance on appropriate use of funding

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. Local authorities should consider the following as appropriate uses of the grant:

• ensuring that staff who are isolating in line with government guidance receive their normal wages and do not lose income while doing so

• paying for temporary cover for staff who are unable to work because they are unwell due to COVID-19 and/or are isolating in line with government guidance, in order to maintain safe workforce capacity in care services

• paying for temporary staffing (overtime or agency) to maintain safe staffing levels

• limiting staff movement between settings in line with the latest guidance, to help reduce the spread of infection – this includes staff who work for one provider across several settings, staff that work on a part-time basis for multiple employers and agency staff

• limiting or cohorting staff to individual groups of people receiving care, including segregation of COVID-19 positive residents in care homes

• steps to limit the use of public transport by members of staff

• providing accommodation for staff who proactively choose to stay separate from their families in order to limit social interaction outside work

• support to providers in purchasing CO2 monitors or air cleaners for use in care homes to monitor and improve ventilation

• enhancing local authorities’ current direct payment offer to support care provided by friends and family, including any additional support the carer may need to assist them to continue in their caring role

• providing additional support to care homes or other providers that are currently experiencing an outbreak to ensure that they are able to put in place sufficient IPC measures

• providing support to community groups and paying volunteer expenses

Reporting

We have minimised the reporting requirements for this grant in order to prioritise speed.

Nevertheless, it helps the government’s COVID-19 response to understand how funding is being used and making an impact. Consequently, we have added further detail to the reporting templates for the Infection Control and Testing Fund (round 3).

Local authorities should indicate how they have chosen to use the Omicron Support Fund in January for reporting point 2 (due 28 February 2022). If local authorities have used the Omicron Support fund in February or March, they should indicate this for reporting point 3 (due 29 April 2022).

Paying providers

A local authority should ideally not provide direct funding to a provider unless they have complied with the grant conditions from previous funds, except where the local authority has received sufficient assurances from that provider. Local authorities must assure themselves that all direct funding for providers from this allocation is spent on COVID-19 response. We expect that this funding will be used to support the full range of social care providers regardless of whether the local authority already commissions care from them.

Managing the risk of fraud

Local authorities must ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to mitigate against the risk of fraud. This is particularly important for local authorities who may choose to pass some or all of this funding to third parties. Before passing funding on to third parties, local authorities should assure themselves that they are legitimate recipients of this funding.

A number of different public funding streams have been made available during the pandemic. Local authorities should, as far as possible, put measures in place to ensure this funding is not used to support activity which has already been funded by an alternative source of public funding. This fund is intended to support many of the same measures as the concurrent Infection Control and Testing Fund (Round 3). It is clearly acceptable to use this funding to ‘top up’ that fund where this is required. Local authorities should ensure that the same activity is not double-funded.

If a local authority has any grounds for suspecting financial irregularity in the use of this funding, it must notify the department immediately, explain what steps are being taken to investigate the suspicion and keep the department informed about the progress of the investigation. For these purposes ‘financial irregularity’ includes:

• fraud or other impropriety
• mismanagement
• the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided

Local authority assurance processes

We expect local authorities to work closely with providers to determine how funding should best be spent, including paying funding directly to providers where appropriate.

Local authorities can choose to pass some or all of this funding directly to care providers that are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A care provider is legally required to register with the CQC where they carry on a regulated activity set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. If a local authority transfers any amount of the funding directly to CQC-registered care providers, the local authority will carry the responsibility for ensuring that the funding is used in line with the purpose of the fund. The local authority will therefore need to put in place effective processes to ensure an efficient recovery of funds in the case of fraudulent payments.

Local authorities must have in place appropriate oversight of deliverables and outputs from any amount of funding passed to a provider and have due regard to their responsibilities with respect to international agreements on subsidy control. This should be sufficient to ensure the funding is spent in line with the intended purpose and allow a local authority to verify or monitor the accuracy of reporting.

Local authorities should work constructively and collaboratively with providers receiving passported funds to ensure that it imposes conditions on the provider requiring that:

• the recipient care providers uses it for new expenditure that delivers additional activity that has not already been funded by the Infection Control and Testing Fund, the first and second Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund or other sources of public funding. It is acceptable to use this funding to ‘top up’ measures funded by existing sources of public funding where this is required

• the provider will return any grant amount to the local authority that is not spent on those measures

• if requested to do so, the care provider should provide the local authority or the department receipts or such other information as they request to evidence that the funding has been spent in accordance with the measures above

• if requested to do so, the care provider should provide the department or the local authority with an explanation of any matter relating to funding and its use by the recipient as they think necessary or expedient for the purposes of being assured that the money has been used in an appropriate way in respect of those measures

Payment of the grant

Local authorities should promptly notify and repay immediately to the department any money incorrectly paid to it either as a result of an administrative error or otherwise. This includes (without limitation) situations where the local authority is paid in error before it has complied with its obligations as outlined in the grant determination (annex A). This funding would be due immediately. If the local authority fails to repay the due sum immediately the sum will be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.

Subsidy control

The department considers that this grant, and the measures that it is intended to support, are consistent with the UK’s international obligations on subsidy control. Support provided to care providers by local authorities using this grant may involve providing subsidies. Local authorities must comply with the relevant Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) subsidy control guidance when making allocations of the grant.

Capacity Tracker completion

Local authorities are not required to pass funding on to providers. However, where local authorities choose to pass funding on, they must only pay funding to providers who have completed the Capacity Tracker at least twice (2 consecutive weeks), and have committed to completing the Tracker at least once per week until the conclusion of the fund.