Guidance

Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund for adult social care

Updated 27 April 2022

Applies to England

This guidance applies to the first round of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund, which operated between October 2021 and March 2022. While these funds are no longer live, this guidance is preserved here for reference, and local authority reporting and assurance purposes.

Background

On 14 September 2021 the government made a commitment in the COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan 2021 to support local authorities and social care providers to maintain safe staffing levels over the winter period and to continue working closely with the care sector to build sufficient workforce capacity across services.

The adult social care winter plan published on 3 November 2021 sets out the support the government will be providing to the adult social care sector to meet the challenges it faces this winter. The plan includes a commitment to providing workforce recruitment and retention funding, originally announced on 21 October 2021, to support local authorities and providers to recruit and retain sufficient staff over winter, and support growth and sustain existing workforce capacity.

Purpose

The main purpose of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund is to support local authorities to address adult social care workforce capacity pressures in their geographical area through recruitment and retention activity this winter, in order to:

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

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

• support providers to prevent admission to hospital

• enable timely new care provision in the community

• support and boost retention of staff within social care

This allocation of the grant must only be used to deliver measures that address local workforce capacity pressures in adult social care between 21 October 2021 and 31 March 2022 through recruitment and retention activity. We expect councils to work closely with their provider partners to think innovatively about the measures they put in place individually and collectively, including passporting funding directly to providers where appropriate. It will be important to retain existing staff capacity as well as encourage new and returning entrants.

Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• supporting payments to boost the hours provided by the existing workforce – including childcare costs and overtime payments

• investment in measures to support staff and boost retention of staff within social care – including occupational health, wellbeing measures, incentive and retention payments

• the creation and maintenance of measures to secure additional or redeployed capacity from current care workers. For example, shared staff banks, redeploying local authority staff, emergency support measures, overtime payments

• local recruitment initiatives

• activities to support hospital discharge or to prevent or address delays as a result of workforce capacity shortages (distinct from enhanced guidance on finance and contracting arrangements for H2 2021 to 2022 discharge funding agreed in H2 2021 to 2022 settlement)

• activities which support the recruitment of local authority employed social care staff, or which enhance or retain the capacity of existing local authority employed social care staff

• local authorities and, where funding has been passported, providers to use the grant to cover reasonable administrative and/or set up costs they incur for new measures that deliver additional staffing capacity through recruitment and retention activity

Where local authorities and, where funding has been passported, providers are already using such approaches, the funding can be used to increase the scale of activity.

Local authorities can use funding directly to deliver measures that help all providers of adult social care in their area. This includes:

• care home and domiciliary care

• care providers with which local authorities do not have contracts

• organisations providing care and support who may not be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC)

Day care, short stay care services and supporting the capacity of the personal assistant workforce are also included.

This is a new grant, separate to the third Infection Control and Testing Fund, which will further help the care sector respond to the challenges posed by winter pressures and will be paid to local authorities in England.

About this funding

This is a ring-fenced grant of £162.5 million that will be paid in 2 instalments to local authorities:

• the first instalment worth £97.5 million (60%) will be processed as soon as possible and will be made in November 2021

• the second instalment worth £65 million (40%) will be paid in January 2022 and will be conditional on local authorities having completed a return to the Department of Health and Social Care by 14 January 2022

The department’s expectation is that the grant will be fully spent on addressing local workforce capacity pressures through recruitment and retention activity by 31 March 2022. We are clear that ‘spent’ means that expenditure has been incurred between 21 October 2021 and 31 March 2022. This means the activity leading to the expense must have happened by 31 March 2022, so that the local authority is accruing the expense and it appears in the local authority’s 2021 to 2022 accounts.

About this distribution of the funding

Allocations of funding per local authority are attached in annex C.

All local authorities will be allocated the first instalment of this funding in November 2021, according to the distributions set out in annex C of the local authority grant circular.

The payment of the second instalment of the fund is contingent on local authorities having returned templates to the department by 14 January 2022.

The distribution of this grant to local authorities is based on the standard adult social care relative needs formula (RNF). The allocations per local authority have been published in annex C of the local authority circular.

Paying the grant

The department will transfer the first instalment of this grant to local authorities in November 2021. We want local authorities to make use of this funding as quickly as possible to help to retain existing capacity or increase the staffing capacity of the social care system.

Specific restrictions on the use of the funding

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

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

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

• support providers to prevent admission to hospital

• enable timely new care provision in the community

• support and boost retention of staff within social care

This allocation of the grant must only be used to deliver measures that address local workforce capacity pressures in adult social care between 21 October 2021 and 31 March 2022 through recruitment and retention activity. We expect local authorities to work closely with providers to determine how funding should best be spent, including passporting funding directly to providers where appropriate. It will be important to retain existing staff capacity as well as encourage new and returning entrants.

Local authorities can use funding directly to deliver measures that help all providers of adult social care in their geographical area, this includes care home and domiciliary care, care providers with which local authorities do not have contracts, and organisations providing care who may not be registered with the CQC.  

Local authorities can also choose to passport some, or all, of the fund directly to a care provider to deliver measures that retain existing capacity or increase staffing capacity within the provider’s organisation. However, they should ensure that funding is only passported directly to a provider that is registered with the CQC. A provider is legally required to register with the CQC when they carry on a regulated activity set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

To ensure maximum productivity of any payments to providers, local authorities should be mindful of time pressures. Therefore, if a local authority chooses to make payments to providers, where possible, they should endeavour to passport funds as early as possible during the grant period to ensure that providers have time to use the resources to maximum effect.

If a local authority chooses to make payments to providers financed by this grant, it must ensure those providers will use the funding within the grant period to support new expenditure that retains existing workforce capacity or delivers additional staff capacity, and which has not already been funded by the Infection Control Fund or other sources of public funding. In addition, care providers should keep sufficient records to be able to demonstrate what specific staffing capacity was secured using this funding. Further information can be found in the ‘Managing the risk of fraud’ section below.  

If, at the end of the fund on 31 March 2022, there is any unspent amounts or the department is not satisfied that the fund has been spent according to the grant conditions outlined in annex B, the department will require the repayment of the whole or any part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and notified in writing to the authority. However, the department will only look to recover funding where it is reasonably considered that the fund has not been used in accordance with the grant conditions. 

Relationship with Infection Control and Testing Fund

This grant is separate from the extension to the Infection Control and Testing Fund, and as such cannot be used to support those infection control, vaccine or testing measures. This funding can only be used to support those measures set out in annex B of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund local authority circular (3 November 2021).

This new Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund is designed to allow local authorities to support measures that generate additional or retain existing adult social care workforce capacity through recruitment and retention activity.

Local authorities can only passprt funding to providers when the measures the provider will take meet the conditions of the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund and are not already being funded by the Infection Control and Testing Fund or other sources of public funding. 

Financial pressures

This funding cannot be used to address general financial pressures that providers might be experiencing.

Requirements for local authorities

Local authority reporting on spending

Local authorities must distribute the money in line with the grant conditions and are required to provide 2 returns to the department covering the information set out in annex D and the accompanying guidance and return it by the dates below:

• reporting point 1: 14 January 2022, covering expenditure from 21 October to 30 November 2021

• reporting point 2: 29 April 2022, covering expenditure for the entire whole grant period from 21 October 2021 to 31 March 2022

If local authorities have passed funding on to care providers, they must obtain the information they need from providers to complete the returns.

These returns should be returned to the mailbox workforcerecruitmentandretentionfund@dhsc.gov.uk.

Departmental assurance processes

Local authorities must comply with any departmental assurance processes, including requests for information they have received from providers on spending of this funding. The department will review the information provided by local authorities and may request that providers make their financial records available. If the department finds evidence of the grant being misused it will recover the funding.

Local authority assurance processes

Local authorities must put in place sufficient processes to assure themselves that this fund is correctly spent by providers.

Certification

As well as the reporting on spending and activity at the close of the fund the local authority’s CEO or S151 Officer and the Director of Adult Social Services (DASS) must confirm to the department that the grant has been used for the purposes intended, as set out in the grant determination Letter. S151 Officers and DASSs have been provided with a statement of assurance for their signature as per annex E of the local authority grant circular.

We expect local authorities to work closely with providers to determine how funding should best be spent, including passporting funding directly to providers where appropriate. If a local authority has allocated funding to a provider directly to address staffing capacity issues through recruitment and retention activity it will need to obtain the necessary information from the provider for reporting purposes to allow the local authority to fulfil the reporting requirements outlined above. The local authority should ensure that they have the appropriate agreements in place to be able to ensure the providers they have passed funding to are using it in accordance with the grant conditions.

If the information that a local authority receives from providers gives them concerns that the provider’s spending is not in line with the grant conditions, they should recover misused funding and inform the department immediately.

Managing the risk of fraud

Local authorities and any recipient providers must maintain a sound system of internal financial controls.

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 CQC-registered social care providers.

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.

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, and the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided.

Local authorities should have access to Spotlight, a digital assurance tool. Alongside other checks conducted by local authorities, the tool can help with pre-payment, and in some cases post-payment, assurance. The government Grants Management Function and Counter Fraud Function can offer support in using Spotlight and interpreting results. We expect local authorities to undertake additional due diligence where Spotlight highlights issues and recognise this could cause some delays in payment to those specific providers.

We also want local authorities to work with us and each other in identifying and sharing good practice, including protecting eligible businesses which may be targeted by fraudsters pretending to be central or local government or acting on their behalf. If local authorities detect any instances of fraud we expect them to share that information with the department.

Local authorities carry the financial risk through grant agreements with providers, and will therefore need to manage this risk and put in place effective processes to ensure an efficient recovery of funds in the case of fraudulent payments.

Payments to providers

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

Local authorities can choose to pass some or all of this funding to care providers that are registered with the CQC. Local authorities should, where possible, endeavour to passport funds as early as possible during the grant period to ensure that providers have time to use the resources to maximum effect. 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 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 an 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 staff capacity or retains existing capacity where the expenditure or activity has not already been funded by the Infection Control and Testing Fund or other sources of public funding

• 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

• the local authority must provide a final value of unspent funding and updated final spending report by no later than 30 June 2022, after which time the local authority may no longer amend this value. We expect local authorities to return unspent amounts to the department promptly after this date. In July 2022, the department will send letters out to all local authorities advising them on how to return any unspent or misspent amounts. We ask that all local authorities make arrangements prior to this point to recoup any unspent amounts from providers in their local area

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 under the grant conditions (as outlined in the local authority circular (DATE). 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.

Clawback and assurance

Clawback provisions apply to this fund including that local authorities must repay any unspent amounts from the fund and any amounts not used for measures that deliver additional staffing capacity and meet the grant conditions. Where the local authority has passported funds to providers, the provider must return any unspent amounts to the local authority at the end of the grant period. If the department considers that funding has not been used in accordance with the grant conditions, it will provide local authorities with an opportunity to explain their spending. However, if the department reasonably believes spending is not in line with the grant conditions, they may recover grant monies from local authorities.

The department will assess this through returns at reporting point 2, including any follow-up information requests which might arise as part of the assurance process.

Subsidy control

As stated in the local authority circular 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 the grant paid to them from the Workforce Recruitment and Retention Fund may involve providing subsidies. Local authorities must comply with the relevant BEIS subsidy control guidance when making allocations of the grant.