Delayed transfers of care hit 18-month low but targets still set to be missed

Experts call for ‘urgent clarity’ in wake of government warnings around future social care funding

Photo: WavebreakmediaMicro/fotolia

Government targets for reducing delayed transfers of care look set to be missed despite figures falling to their lowest levels since April 2016.

The figures, which track the number of days people’s discharges from hospital have been delayed across the country, have hit record levels on a number of occasions in the past year.

However, September’s total delayed days number, 168,302, was 14.5% lower than the 196,570 at the same time last year, government statistics show. In the past two months alone, the number of delayed days attributable to social care has fallen by more than 10%.

Experts welcomed the reductions but warned they were “unlikely” to free up enough beds for winter or to meet targets – widely criticised as being too stringent – set by the Department of Health in July.

The government stipulated that by the time September’s figures were published, just 2.6 adults per 100,000 should be delayed in hospital for social care reasons.

But a Local Government Association (LGA) report has revealed that the most recent national average is 4.7, with a number of councils running at twice or three times higher.

Izzi Seccombe, chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, called for “urgent clarity” about the impact on councils, which had been warned their funding for next year could be affected.

’Huge ongoing efforts’

Since the government targets were introduced, councils have reduced their total delayed days by more than 10% (from 68,098 to 61,147), while NHS delayed days fell by just under 6.5% (from 101,681 to 95,104).

Over the same period the ‘DToC beds’ measure, calculated by dividing the number of delayed days by the number of calendar days in the month, showed a 7.2% drop for social care against a 3.4% one for the NHS.

Meanwhile, the proportion of delays attributable to social care, which also reached its highest-ever level at 38% this summer, has fallen to 36.3%. This remains high, however, compared with the 31% being regularly recorded as recently as autumn 2015.

Seccombe said the social care delay reductions were “testament to huge ongoing efforts by councils to get people out of hospital and back into the community”.

Margaret Willcox, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), described the falling proportion of delayed days attributable to social care as a “fantastic achievement”.

Willcox added: “[This is] evidence that the £1 billion emergency funding identified [by the government] earlier this year to avoid cuts has really made a difference.” The figures were “good news” in terms of preparing for winter, she said.

‘Unlikely to be enough’

But Richard Murray, director of policy for The King’s Fund, warned that the overall reduction in delayed transfers was “unlikely to be enough” to free up the 2,000 to 3,000 beds NHS leaders said would be needed for safe care over the winter.

Nor, he acknowledged, was it likely that the targets for reducing the number of hospital bed days lost due to delays in discharging patients would be met.

The Department of Health had warned that authorities’ social care budgets for next year could face ‘review’ if they failed to hit their targets. A spokesperson confirmed that a review would be happening “in due course” but said there were no further updates at the time of writing.

Seccombe said: “Councils need urgent clarity and greater transparency around how [the situation] will be judged and the implications for local services.

“It is vital that government and NHS England work with councils to make sure we all make the best use of our scarce resources,” she added.

Murray said reducing DToCs must continue to be a priority.

“Success depends on councils and NHS organisations working effectively together,” he said. “While the additional money provided by the government has helped, it is no more than a sticking plaster given the funding pressures and increasing demand facing health and social care services.”

More from Community Care

2 Responses to Delayed transfers of care hit 18-month low but targets still set to be missed

  1. A Man Called Horse November 15, 2017 at 3:54 pm #

    The problem with discharging people from hospital is the failure to deliver the promised increase in capacity from Social care agencies. Clearly discharges at the weekend are a problem, because we cannot access rapid response care services. Agencies cannot recruit due to poor pay, terms and conditions are poor. The job has low social status, the market has failed and the state has failed to fill the gap. Local authorities are having funding by block grant reduced to zero over the next 3 years leaving them unable to respond to the crisis in social care. Why don’t Health Authorities employ carers to a rapid response team to facilitate hospital discharges? Presently people remain in hospital waiting for start dates for social care costing the NHS millions.

  2. Janet November 18, 2017 at 4:27 pm #

    As a retired hospital discharge social worker, lack of agency carers available is one reason for delays. The other has to be contributed to the lack of care home vacancies especially for those with dementia. One of my cases, I contacted 36 homes in the SE of England for a dementia client who required nursing care. Those which had vacancies were charging £1200 – £2000 pw – far above LA rate. This added to at least 4 weeks extra in hospital. Also families can delay discharges by failing to allow essential equipment to be delivered (hospital bed/hoists/commode), refusing care packages as they feel entitled to more.

    LA Housing Officers failing to undertake essential repairs including mending locks/doors where police had forced entry – also not willing to provide new keys for locks to social workers to give to their service users ( they would only post them to the SU address – could not understand that nobody could access the property without a key!). Sheltered Housing Units insisting that carers can only access laundry facilities for one hour pw at set times and if carers are required 4 times daily – feel that SU should be in a care home not SHU..