Decision details

(1) That approval be given to distribute the Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund (October 2021) as per the DHSC guidance.

(2) That the final agreed measures are ratified by the Adult Social Care Director, given the very short timescale for distribution and spend. Failure to distribute the fund by March 2022 reporting deadline, will mean the DHSC reclaiming the fund and the funding not being used by Sandwell care providers.

An urgent decision was required in order to distribute and spend funding as per the DHSC guidance and to prevent the need to return any unused resources back to the DHSC.

Previous allocations of these grants had been distributed to the market as mandated by the DHSC guidance with any discretionary element distributed in line with the mandated requirements. The mandated element of Round 3 of this grant has been passported to providers as per DHSC guidance. This report requested support to distribute the discretionary element of the grant which was remaining.

No other options had been considered, the Council must comply with the DHSC guidance which set out the Adult Social Care Infection Control and Testing Fund including information on the distribution of funds and reporting requirements.