Guidance

Annex A: grant determination letter

Updated 26 January 2023

Applies to England

Determination under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 of a ring-fenced Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund grant for Adult Social Care for 2021/22 no. 31/5853.

The Minister of State for Care (“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 Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund, round 2, 2021/22 No. 31/5853.

Purpose of the grant

2. The main purpose of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund, round 2, is to support local authorities to urgently address adult social care workforce capacity pressures in their geographical area this winter, in order to:

• support timely and safe discharge from hospital to where ongoing care and support is needed

• support providers to maintain the provision of safe care and bolster capacity within providers to deliver more hours of care

• support providers to prevent admission to hospital

• enable timely new care provision in the community

• support and boost the retention of staff within social care

All expenditure financed by this grant should be incurred on or before the 31 March 2022. Any funds not used at this point will be recovered by the Department of Health and Social Care (the department).

Determination

3. The local authorities to which grants are to be paid and the amount of grants to be paid, are set out in annex C.

4. The grant will be paid in 2 instalments with the first being made in January 2021 and the second in February 2022. An authority must submit a statement of assurance by 21 January 2022, outlining how they intend to spend this fund. The template can be found at annex D. An authority must also submit a return by 29 April 2022, specifying how the grant has been spent. These must be submitted to the department who may review the returns on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health and Care. The second instalment will be conditional on local authorities having completed the first return to the Department of Health and Social Care by 21 January 2022.

Grant conditions

5. Pursuant to section 31(4) of the Local Government Act 2003, the Minister of State determines that the grant will be paid subject to the conditions in annex B.

6. The funding must only be used by the local authority to deliver measures that address workforce capacity pressures through recruitment and retention activity in adult social care between 10 December 2021 and 31 March 2022, as specified in the grant conditions in annex B, beyond the measures the local authority is currently budgeting for.

7. Subject to the conditions in this grant determination (including the grant conditions set out in annex B) being satisfied, local authorities can choose to pass some or all of their funding to care providers within the local authority’s geographical area to deliver measures that retain existing capacity or increase staffing capacity within the organisation. Local authorities should ensure that funding is only passported directly to a provider that is registered with the CQC, regardless of whether the local authority already contracts with that provider. If the local authority chooses to make payments to providers financed by this grant they must ensure that providers will use the funding to support new expenditure that retains existing capacity or delivers additional staff capacity and has not already been funded by other sources of public funding. Any providers in receipt of passported funding should be completing the Capacity Tracker at least once per week.

8. If at any point the local authority reasonably believes that the funding is not being used to retain existing capacity or deliver additional staffing capacity through recruitment and retention activity, or is being used for measures already funded by other sources of public funding, the local authority must take all reasonable steps to recover money that has not been used in accordance with the grant conditions.

9. Local authorities must ensure that care providers account for all payments paid out to them and keep appropriate records. If the local authority finds that the provider has not used the funding or any part of it to support the measures for which it was provided, the local authority must take all reasonable steps to recover the money that has not been used.

10. Local authorities must ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to enable them, if necessary, to recover any overpayments. None of the funding provided is to be used for any purpose other than the specified measures outlined in annex B that are focused on retaining existing capacity or delivering additional staffing capacity through recruitment and retention activity.

Treasury consent

11. 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

[insert name]
Deputy Director for Adult Social Care Workforce, Department of Health and Social Care

[insert date]