Guidance

Contain Outbreak Management Fund: guidance – financial year 2021 to 2022

Updated 6 May 2022

Applies to England

Guidance

The Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) provides English local authorities (LAs) with financial support to be used for test, trace and contain activity. As announced in the COVID-19 Response – spring 2021, a further £400 million has been allocated for the COMF for the financial year 2021 to 2022 to continue to help reduce the spread of coronavirus and support local public health initiatives. This £400 million will be distributed to LAs in April 2021 in the form of a one-off payment. This will take total COMF support across 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022 to over £2 billion.

To meet the objectives of the COVID-19 Response – spring 2021, payments from the COMF during the financial year 2021 to 2022 will be based on the MHCLG COVID-19 Relative Needs Formula (RNF). The RNF gives a weighting to both population and deprivation levels, based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Projections indicate that by using this formula, funding will generally be targeted at areas with consistently high infection and enduring transmission rates.

In addition, the RNF allocates funding to both upper-tier local authorities (UTLAs) and lower-tier local authorities (LTLAs) at a ratio of 79% / 21%. This split recognises that, while LTLAs do not hold statutory public health responsibilities, they do hold the responsibility for other activities critical to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes compliance and enforcement activities, which form a core component of the local response to the pandemic and the measures that COMF funding is intended to support.

We recognise that LAs are best placed to determine local priorities that will best meet the needs of their communities. Therefore, UTLAs will retain the discretion to provide a greater proportion of COMF funding to LTLA partners depending on the needs of their local communities, and we encourage UTLAs to do so where appropriate.

Previous COMF guidance stipulated that in 2-tier authority areas, the funding was provided to UTLAs on the expectation that they worked closely with their LTLA partners to ensure that those partners were given opportunities to deliver the outcomes the funding supported, where delivery by those partners would be the most efficient and cost-effective means of delivery. This expectation continues under this new guidance.

UTLAs are in the process of updating their local outbreak management plans and COMF funding is designed to support them to deliver the objectives set out in these plans. The specific public health activities that can be funded from the COMF are left to the judgement of LAs in conjunction with their directors of public health. Suggested activities that the COMF can be used to support include:

• targeted testing for hard-to-reach groups out of scope of other testing programmes
• additional contact tracing
• additional resource for compliance with, and enforcement of, restrictions and guidance
• enhanced communication and marketing – for example, towards hard-to-reach groups and other localised messaging
• targeted interventions for specific sections of the local community and workplaces
• harnessing capacity within local sectors – for example, voluntary, academic, commercial
• extension/introduction of specialist support – for example, behavioural science, bespoke comms
• targeted support for school/university outbreaks
• additional non-financial support for those who are self-isolating
• community-based support for those disproportionately impacted such as the BAME population
• support for engagement and analysis of regional areas to assess and learn from local initiatives
• providing support, as needed, to vulnerable people classed as clinically extremely vulnerable

Provision of this further £400 million of funding is contingent on LAs having completed and returned all monitoring forms for the COMF for the financial year 2020 to 2021. Monthly monitoring forms will be required during the financial year 2021 to 2022. Further information regarding the monitoring expectations will be communicated to LAs prior to the April 2021 payment being made.

Now more than ever, it is important that we provide the most effective funding support to LAs to bring down case rates, and meet our objectives as set out in the COVID-19 Response – spring 2021 roadmap. LAs are best placed to determine how to use their COMF allocation to meet the needs in their communities, within the guidelines set out above, including how the funding can support a smooth de-escalation in their local area through the roadmap stages. This will ensure that we can continue to progress at the same pace nationally through the steps of exiting lockdown, protecting citizens, our health care systems and the economy.

Appendix A: update on funding from the COMF – letter from Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE on 8 April 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Further to the detail set out in the contain framework, I am writing to confirm the allocations of the £400 million that will be distributed from the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) for the financial year 2021 to 2022. These allocations are set out in attachment ‘April 2021 COMF Allocations’.

The COMF remains ring-fenced for public health purposes to tackle COVID-19, working to break the chain of transmission and protecting the most vulnerable. While the specific public health activities that can be funded are subject to your judgement, a list of activities that this funding may be used for is included in the updated COMF guidance document for the financial year 2021 to 2022 attached. Please coordinate your activity with your director of public health.

Per the letters confirming previous COMF allocations sent on 5 March 2021 and 24 March 2021, release of this further £400 million is dependent on each upper-tier local authority (UTLA) having provided their monitoring return to account for how their COMF allocation for the financial year 2020 to 2021 has been used. We will not be able to release your allocation of the £400 million in the absence of this return.

As the COMF for the financial year 2021 to 2022 will be distributed directly to both UTLAs and lower-tier local authorities , we have written separately to you to ensure we have the correct supplier information to enable payments to be made. We will be unable to proceed with payment without having first received this information, hence we would please urge you to provide that information at your earliest convenience.

Please note, this letter and the amount stated in the grant determination letter is to inform you of the fund allocations so you can start planning spend and activities. This is not a confirmation of the fund release. The grant determination letter for this payment along with the updated guidance will be uploaded to GOV.UK shortly.

For any questions regarding COMF, please contact Covid-19LAfundingrequests@dhsc.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE
Contain Divisional Director, NHS Test and Trace
Chief Executive, Oldham Council