Nottinghamshire County Council to receive bonus health grant to help adult social care

A new £14 million health grant given to Nottinghamshire County Council and the NHS will be used to help improve adult social care and reduce the amount of time people have to spend in hospitals.

The council’s health and wellbeing board met on July 24 to discuss how they could use the funding to boost local healthcare.

The Additional Discharge Grant is part of a national scheme to help local councils expand their adult social care, so older people can spend less time in hospital because they can get better support at home.

Across the NHS and county council, the grant is worth £13.9 million over 12 months.

The grant is being pooled with the Better Care Fund, an existing programme across the NHS and councils which has helped prepare healthcare plans for patients and better co-ordinate adult care.

This fund aims to help people be independent at home for longer and to provide people with the correct care, at the right place and at the right time.

By putting the discharge grant into the fund, the council wants to make significant improvements to adult care over the next two years.

Much of the funding will go towards reducing delayed hospital discharges.

This will be achieved by providing new roles to meet increased work turnover timescales, helping with recruitment and retention of staff, increasing the number of people discharged on the weekend

A report to the board, discussed during Wednesday’s board meeting, read: “The model has a positive emphasis on supporting people directly home first and access to re-ablement/rehabilitation and therapy prior to any long-term decision about people’s care and support needs.”

The report also highlighted how it would positively impact mental health services, with the funding also being able to support this area.