HEALTH bosses have been told to hire more carers and boost their pay to help avert a bed-blocking winter crisis in hospitals.
Ministers will dish out £600million to councils and NHS trusts to boost pay for carers, increase hiring and strengthen emergency services.
They want to avoid a delayed discharge backlog like last winter, which saw up to 14,000 patients per day stuck on wards because they could not get care.
Hospitals cannot send patients home until they have a safe place to go and someone to look after them.
The Government is now spending its Market Sustainability and Improvement Workforce Fund to beef up social care.
It will also help keep patients out of hospital by giving them better treatment in the community, with hospital admission a last resort.
Social care minister Helen Whately said: “This is putting extra funding into local authorities so they can raise the fees they pay, so providers can make sure they are paying enough to recruit and retain staff.
“Last year was hard for the NHS so we want the health and care system to be as well prepared as possible.
“We want to make sure the social care system is working well for its own sake, but also because of its connections with ambulance responses and A&E waits.”
Experts say there are more than 100,000 unfilled job posts in social care.
David Fothergill, of the Local Government Association, said: “The social care workforce is crucial to delivering the care that people need.
“This funding will help ensure that people are able to access the support they need.”
NHS England this week announced it would have hundreds more ambulances and 10,000 “virtual ward” beds available to set up in people’s homes by winter.