Guidance

Improved Better Care Fund Grant Determination 2023 to 2024

Updated 4 April 2023

Applies to England

The Improved Better Care Fund (Revenue) Grant Determination (2023-24): No 31/6644

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety (鈥渢he Minister鈥), in exercise of the powers conferred by section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003, makes the following determination:

Citation

1. This determination may be cited as the Improved Better Care Fund (Revenue) Grant Determination (2023-24): No 31/6644.

Purpose of the grant

2. The purpose of the grant is to provide support to local authorities in England towards expenditure lawfully incurred or to be incurred by them.

Determination

3. The Minister determines the authorities to which grant is to be paid and the amount of grant to be paid as set out in Annex A of this determination.

4. The grant will be paid in monthly instalments.

Grant conditions

5. Pursuant to section 31(4) of the Local Government Act 2003, the Minister determines that the grant will be paid subject to the conditions in Annex B.

6. Before making this determination in relation to local authorities in England, the Minister obtained the consent of the Treasury.

Signed by authority of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety

Lucy Pedrick, Deputy Director
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
April 2023

Annex A: Improved Better Care Fund grant allocations to local authorities 2023-24

Local authority* Improved Better Care Fund 2023-24
Barking and Dagenham 拢10,707,003
Barnet 拢9,621,518
Barnsley 拢13,450,589
Bath and North East Somerset 拢4,903,011
Bedford 拢3,404,809
Bexley 拢6,616,137
Birmingham 拢67,918,344
Blackburn with Darwen 拢8,349,082
Blackpool 拢10,875,315
Bolton 拢14,875,163
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 拢13,438,749
Bracknell Forest 拢1,524,876
Bradford 拢23,388,296
Brent 拢13,344,692
Brighton And Hove 拢9,459,107
Bristol 拢17,015,720
Bromley 拢7,730,511
Buckinghamshire Council 拢5,040,826
Bury 拢7,628,448
Calderdale 拢8,436,399
Cambridgeshire 拢15,171,304
Camden 拢12,874,053
Central Bedfordshire 拢2,782,283
Cheshire East 拢8,705,870
Cheshire West and Chester 拢10,824,995
City of London 拢323,659
Cornwall 拢24,356,360
Coventry 拢15,787,327
Croydon 拢9,978,112
Cumberland** 拢14,616,407
Darlington 拢4,488,137
Derby 拢12,045,014
Derbyshire 拢35,732,659
Devon 拢29,126,836
Doncaster 拢16,310,384
Dorset Council 拢12,450,566
Dudley 拢16,627,704
Durham 拢30,866,855
Ealing 拢12,679,522
East Riding of Yorkshire 拢11,621,175
East Sussex 拢21,776,611
Enfield 拢11,726,014
Essex 拢46,380,576
Gateshead 拢11,386,636
Gloucestershire 拢20,024,675
Greenwich 拢15,434,166
Hackney 拢16,636,745
Halton*** 鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌
Hammersmith and Fulham 拢10,027,236
Hampshire 拢31,279,425
Haringey 拢9,806,399
Harrow 拢6,663,537
Hartlepool 拢5,358,232
Havering 拢6,824,956
Herefordshire 拢6,782,841
Hertfordshire 拢23,554,995
Hillingdon 拢7,467,803
Hounslow 拢8,174,245
Isle of Wight 拢6,180,112
Isles of Scilly 拢81,490
Islington 拢14,500,901
Kensington and Chelsea 拢7,661,937
Kent 拢50,014,663
Kingston upon Hull 拢17,920,422
Kingston upon Thames 拢1,839,849
Kirklees 拢17,821,765
Knowsley*** 鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌
Lambeth 拢14,946,411
Lancashire 拢54,946,963
Leeds 拢31,640,675
Leicester 拢17,556,473
Leicestershire 拢17,690,614
Lewisham 拢14,941,703
Lincolnshire 34,256,698
Liverpool*** 鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌
Luton 拢7,480,913
Manchester 拢31,749,311
Medway 拢7,307,509
Merton 拢5,009,679
Middlesbrough 拢8,645,870
Milton Keynes 拢6,176,149
Newcastle upon Tyne 拢16,873,501
Newham 拢17,192,573
Norfolk 拢39,618,564
North East Lincolnshire 拢8,058,576
North Lincolnshire 拢7,237,736
North Northamptonshire 拢11,523,432
North Somerset 拢6,985,854
North Tyneside 拢9,578,514
North Yorkshire** 拢17,328,446
Northumberland 拢12,495,752
Nottingham 拢16,602,807
Nottinghamshire 拢30,920,338
Oldham 拢11,187,623
Oxfordshire 拢10,705,289
Peterborough 拢7,479,861
Plymouth 拢12,933,061
Portsmouth 拢8,616,489
Reading 拢2,692,624
Redbridge 拢10,081,355
Redcar and Cleveland 拢6,927,994
Richmond upon Thames 拢776,431
Rochdale 拢12,277,980
Rotherham 拢14,480,543
Rutland 拢218,818
Salford 拢14,087,266
Sandwell 拢23,021,429
Sefton*** 鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌
Sheffield 拢29,289,802
Shropshire 拢11,863,403
Slough 拢3,989,414
Solihull 拢6,446,984
Somerset** 拢23,372,611
South Gloucestershire 拢4,632,638
South Tyneside 拢10,485,029
Southampton 拢10,704,789
Southend-on-Sea 拢7,797,498
Southwark 拢17,847,349
St. Helens*** 鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌
Staffordshire 拢32,709,077
Stockport 拢9,711,282
Stockton-on-Tees 拢7,171,908
Stoke-on-Trent 拢15,397,754
Suffolk 拢29,007,554
Sunderland 拢18,683,789
Surrey 拢11,408,352
Sutton 拢4,067,048
Swindon 拢5,395,489
Tameside 拢12,585,188
Telford and Wrekin 拢7,823,562
Thurrock 拢5,569,460
Torbay 拢8,837,572
Tower Hamlets 拢16,810,321
Trafford 拢8,224,415
Wakefield 拢17,422,475
Walsall 拢14,181,001
Waltham Forest 拢9,486,387
Wandsworth 拢16,985,220
Warrington 拢6,210,915
Warwickshire 拢15,133,281
West Berkshire 拢806,499
Westmorland and Furness** 拢9,303,840
West Northamptonshire 拢10,069,033
West Sussex 拢20,612,666
Westminster 拢17,649,014
Wigan 拢16,763,115
Wiltshire 拢10,242,097
Windsor and Maidenhead 拢2,256,388
Wirral 鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌
Wokingham 拢471,832
Wolverhampton 拢14,761,161
Worcestershire 拢19,024,460
York 拢5,368,798
Total 拢2,039,256,346

*Funding paid to local authorities with responsibility for adult social care only.

**On 1 April 2023 the following unitary authorities will be established:

  • Cumberland, comprising the areas of Allerdale, Carlisle, Copeland and part of Cumbria County Council.
  • Westmorland and Furness, comprising the areas of Barrow-in-Furness, Eden, South Lakeland and part of Cumbria County Council.
  • North Yorkshire, comprising the areas of Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby.
  • Somerset, comprising the areas of Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset and Somerset West and Taunton.

***The total iBCF allocation for Liverpool City Region councils ( 拢100,567,669) has been devolved as a part of the Business Rates Retention pilots and will not need to be paid out.

Allocations may not sum to exact totals due to rounding

Annex B: Grant conditions

1. In this Annex:

a. 鈥渁 recipient authority鈥 means a local authority listed in Annex A to this determination;

b. 鈥渢he Department鈥 means the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities;

c. 鈥渢he Minister鈥 means the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety

Use of grant

2. Grant paid to a recipient authority under this determination may be used only for the purposes of;

a. meeting adult social care needs,

b. reducing pressures on the NHS, including seasonal winter pressures

c. supporting people to be discharged from hospital when they are ready, and

d. ensuring that the social care provider market is supported.

3. A recipient authority must:

a. pool the grant funding into the local Better Care Fund, unless the authority has written Ministerial exemption;

b. work with the relevant health commissioners and providers to meet any discharge conditions set out in the 2023-25 Better Care Fund Policy Framework; and

c. report on spend as required, through the Better Care Fund reporting process (BCF).

Financial management

4. A recipient authority must maintain a sound system of internal financial controls.

5. If a recipient authority has any grounds for suspecting financial irregularity in the use of any grant paid under this funding agreement, it must notify the Department immediately, explain what steps are being taken to investigate the suspicion and keep the Department informed about the progress of the investigation. For these purposes 鈥渇inancial irregularity鈥 includes fraud or other impropriety, mismanagement, and the use of grant for purposes other than those for which it was provided.

Breach of conditions and recovery of grant

6. If a recipient authority fails to comply with any of these conditions, or if any overpayment is made under this grant or any amount is paid in error, the Secretary of State may reduce, suspend or withhold grant payments or require the repayment of the whole or any part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Secretary of State and notified in writing to the authority. Such sum as has been notified will immediately become repayable to the Secretary of State who may set off the sum against any future amount due to the authority from central government.