Nottinghamshire County Council to make £1.3m available for hospital discharges over challenging winter period

Up to £1.3m is to be made available to support people being discharged safely from hospital over what is expected to be one of the most challenging winter periods on record.

Nottinghamshire County Council will pay for 28.5 additional temporary social care staff to help with the transition back home or to a community placement.

The council is also proposing to extend its Home First Response Service to offer a further 44 places a day – an increase of 50% of its current capacity.

The Home First Response Service is a short-term rapid response service which offers support to people who are being discharged from hospital, helping them to regain skills, rebuild confidence and live as independently as possible.

It is also proposed the council’s reablement service, where staff work with people who are discharged from hospital to help them regain their independence, will also be extended to offer support to 225 more people over the winter period.

Boyd Elliott, chairman of the adult social care and public health committee, said he believes this funding is the best way to support people discharged from hospital, but also revealed a big recruitment campaign will be launched to solve the shortage of care workers.

He said: “We know that this winter will be one of the toughest on record with covid still circulating and other seasonal viruses like flu causing an increase in hospital admissions.

“We are working closely with our partners across the health and social care system and we believe this funding is the best way we can support people out of hospital at the right time with a package of support to help them return to independence.

“However, we know that there is still a huge shortage of care workers in the provider sector, so we are doing all we can to support our providers. We will be working with them on a big recruitment campaign over the winter months to encourage people to make a difference and apply for a career as a care worker.”

If the report is approved, the money will come from national discharge to assess funding which is held by the clinical commissioning groups. The funding for the temporary posts will be until March 2022.