Issue - meetings

Members received an update report on the Better Care Fund (BFC). They were advised that the Council had a statutory duty to award Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) to people who qualify for assistance, subject to means testing. The DFGs funded essential adaptations for people with disabilities and were designed to enable people to continue to live independently in their home.

In the past, funding for DFGs came directly from the government. Now the funding for DFGs was part of the Better Care Fund. The BCF was a pooled budget across district councils, county councils and health services. The fund was administered by KCC and was available to be spent on things which contribute to the BCF Plan, including DFGs. The purpose of including the DFG funding in the BCF was to enable spending on wider joint housing, health and social care outcomes, such as reducing hospital admissions and enabling earlier discharge from hospital.

The first call on the Council’s BCF allocation was the funding of mandatory DFGs. However there was scope to also fund the administration of the grants programme and other services that were set out in the Council’s published Housing Assistance Policy. Currently, the Council used some of the Better Care Funding to fund the Disabled Facilities Grants officer, and a KCC Occupational Therapist to support disabled people who need an adaptation. The Council also funded a handyman scheme, hospital discharge scheme and specialised hoarding officer, all aimed at improving outcomes for vulnerable and disabled residents. Two officers were also funded within the Home Energy team, whose role was to provide advice about energy efficiency and availability of funding and support people in fuel poverty to access the help they needed.

There remained some capacity with the BCF to allocate further resources to these services, as set out in the report. It was being recommended that additional resources were needed for energy efficiency work due to the scale of the need for this work as a result of both the declared climate emergency and the current economic climate.

Councillor Yates spoke under council Procedure rule 20.1.

Councillor Jill Bayford proposed, Councillor Saunders seconded and Cabinet agreed:

1.  To note the report regarding the current use of the Better Care Fund, and approve the additional resource within the Housing Strategy & Projects Team for Home Energy.