National Care Forum Members Briefing 16.1.23

Information as shared by National Care Forum

Discharge Funding for Step Down Care - Additional £200m

Following up from my email on Friday, we have now read the full grant conditions for this new fund. I have attached a briefing which summarises what the funding is for and how ICBs will use it. I have also included information about the original £500m adult social care discharge fund so you can see the difference between the two funds and how they interact.

The letter and guidance that was published on Friday can be found here.

NHS 2023/24 Planning Guidance and Priorities

At the end of December, NHSE published:

• Its priorities and operational planning guidance for 2023/24

• Guidance for ICBs and partner NHS trusts on developing the joint forward plan

• Consultation on the NHS Standard Contract

I have attached a briefing which summarises the first two and pulls out what we think providers need to be aware of. We have chosen not to summarise the changes being proposed to the NHS Standard Contract as they can be viewed here. At a quick glance, we don’t think there are changes which will have a drastic impact on adult social care providers but please do let us know if we have overlooked something.

The key messages to take from the attached briefing is that having the social care provider sector at the top table in the Integrated Care Systems is essential both for the NHS to deliver on their operational priorities and for Integrated Care Boards to do effective joint forward planning for their local communities.