Guidance

Annex A: grant determination

Updated 8 April 2021

Applies to England

Determination under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 of a ring-fenced infection control grant to local authorities for 2021 to 2022 No. 31/5487

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 Infection Control and Testing Grant Determination 2021 to 2022 No. 31/5487.

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 uptake of staff vaccination; and

• (b) conduct additional rapid testing of staff and visitors in care homes, high-risk supported living and extra care settings, 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 rapid testing measures are put in place as quickly as possible, local authorities should make the relevant payments to providers within 20 working days of receipt of these allocations. All expenditure financed by this grant should be incurred on or before 30 June 2021. 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 April 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 includes 2 distinct allocations of funding – infection prevention and control (IPC) funding and rapid testing funding.

7) Subject to the conditions in this grant determination being satisfied, local authorities should pass 70% 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 60% of the rapid testing allocation straight to care homes with 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. This funding must only be used for the specific rapid testing measures specified in Annex C. The local authority has the discretion to target the allocation of the remaining 40% of the rapid testing allocation on supporting the rollout of lateral flow testing (LFT) to other parts of the care sector. This remaining 40% is being provided to support the rollout of lateral flow testing in extra care and supported living, and we expect local authorities – who have been referring and approving settings for this purpose – to use this funding to support testing in those settings.

9) 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 30 June 2021.

10) 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.

11) 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 or rapid 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 such overpayments. None of the funding provided directly to providers is to be used for any purpose other than the specified IPC and rapid testing measures.

Treasury consent

12) 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, Helen Whately

Hester Wadge, Deputy Director for Social Care Oversight, Department of Health and Social Care

29 March 2021