Staffordshire County Council: A ‘quick fix fund’ to address one-off scenarios that are affecting health and care support for local residents

As part of its ongoing work to reduce health inequalities, Staffordshire County Council is taking steps to address scenarios that ‘fall between the gaps’ in service provision and have a negative impact on an individual’s health, wellbeing or independence. 

Staffordshire’s Health Inequalities Directors Group brings together senior leaders from the county council and eight district and borough councils. During discussions, the group heard from frontline staff (NHS, social care, housing and environmental health) about an increasing number of situations which could not be solved by existing services or support routes, and which were affecting not only the individual involved but also the wider system. 

These were one-off situations that were having an impact on the provision of health and care services as well as on the health, wellbeing and independence of an individual. The challenge was to design a practical solution that could quickly identify and address these situations, preventing them from escalating further and placing greater pressure and cost on public services. 

The group identified that a ‘Quick Fix Fund’ (QFF) would provide a rapid resolution to plug the funding gaps and system challenges created by these scenarios. As well as ensuring that essential health and care services could continue to be provided, it would enable system flow to be maintained – such as discharge from hospital. 

The QFF went live in June 2024, with three goals: 

1. Providing a practical resource to speed up solutions to problems which are beyond statutory duties or the scope of existing services. 

2. Providing a small amount of money where this would make a big difference to a person’s health and wellbeing and the care they receive. 

3. Potentially unblocking system challenges which impact on delivery of health, care and other public/voluntary sector services. 

Staff from partner organisations across Staffordshire can request access to the fund through a simple application form. Applications are reviewed against agreed eligibility criteria, designed to be as broad as possible to reflect the range of scenarios that could arise. 

The fund is not intended to remove or mitigate the statutory responsibilities of partner organisations, and is used as a last resort when the individual is not eligible for other pots of funding. 

The QFF involves multiple partner organisations and seeks to use the ‘on-the-ground’ knowledge of staff within councils, the voluntary sector and other public services to direct funding at high impact, high priority issues.

Between June 2024 and January 2025, 194 bids were received. Of these, 66 were awarded funding, 76 were in progress at the time of writing, and 50 had been rejected due to not meeting the eligibility criteria. 

Total spend on the first 66 grants was £24,733. Just over half (51 per cent) related to household items while 39 per cent were for decluttering and deep cleaning. Successful bids came from across the county and related to people aged between 20 and 90. 

Beth Hadnum is Infection Control and Outbreak Management Lead in Staffordshire’s public health team. She said: “Our services are already meeting the needs of the vast majority of people. This is for those rare situations that fall between the gaps of existing service provision and when everyone can see what needs to be done.” 

Examples of how the fund has been used include: 

• Flea infestations in homes which had resulted in a restriction to the provision of district nursing or social care and/or a delay in hospital discharge.
• Support for a homeless individual with an infectious disease who was required to self-isolate to prevent the spread of infection.
• Mental health support and a deep clean/declutter to ensure continuation of care in properties where there was severe hoarding. 

There were some challenges in designing the initiative – where the fund would sit, how payments would be made quickly, and how the spending criteria could be clearly communicated across a range of organisations and teams across the county. 

The fund sits with Staffordshire County Council’s ‘First Contact’ team, who provide frontline contact into adult social care services. This has worked well. Once an application is approved, the team can make immediate purchases using credit cards – speed of response that is critical to this approach. Beth Hadnum said: “During COVID we were able to react and adapt very quickly, and we used that learning in developing the Quick Fix Fund.”   

An interim evaluation of the fund’s impact and value for money is underway, which will also identify recurring themes so that longer-term solutions can be explored. One clear theme is the need for decluttering and deep cleans to enable health and care teams to access properties and work safely. A new task and finish group will look at the issue of hoarding – why it happens and what would prevent situations from escalating.

The team is exploring the use of linked NHS and social care data to track the impact of interventions – how people’s lives have been changed and whether the scheme has prevented the need for more costly health and care interventions further down the line. 

Elected members have been engaged in the process and early feedback from service users and delivery partners has been positive. Frontline workers value the fund’s speed, its practical nature and the simple application process, and report that it has already made a big difference to vulnerable people. 

Beth Hadnum said: “The Quick Fix Fund has already demonstrated that by investing a small amount of money, a longer-term financial saving can be achieved. By working with our local partners and sharing local knowledge, we have been able to solve problems which would have had a much greater financial and resource impact in the long run.”