Winter pressures exist every year and despite planning, for many local authorities this can be an extremely challenging time.

With an increase of emergency admissions and vulnerable people experiencing poor health brought on by colder weather, the major issue centres on the upsurge of individuals and families trying to access health and social care services.

In many cases, increased demand will come from those patients who are well enough and ready to be discharged from hospital. As is well documented, the flow of individuals from hospital into social care is not always a smooth one. For a multitude of reasons, moving someone from hospital into residential care is an extremely complicated process. Despite the hard work of staff working in hospitals or social care services, every day around 12,000 people in the UK are well enough to be discharged from hospital but are unable to leave, because their onward care is unavailable. Right now, around 3,300 people in England are ready to be safely discharged and waiting in hospital for a rehabilitation bed, or bed in a nursing home to become available.

This is not a new issue. Every year thousands of people face long waits for care over winter, with many experiencing long stays, stuck in hospital beds. With winter almost here, outcome-focused action is urgently needed.

At time of writing the Government has made several announcements of national initiatives to address hospital flow and the onset of issues caused by bed blocking. This includes extra funding for social care services and a national roll out of Community Discharge Control Centres.

While these initiatives are no doubt well intentioned, they are unlikely to have the significant impact needed. When broken down across the UK, £40m for social care averages out at about £130,000 per local authority. While this is crude maths and the funding is likely to be allocated by need, it illustrates the paucity of what is being offered.

The roll out of Community Discharge Control Centres is also unlikely to move the needle. You can have the best systems in the world, but without the resources and brilliant processes in place to manage and run them, they will not succeed.

Previous evidence shows that a national response is not the answer. In 2022, £200m was allocated to improving this issue. But analysis of available data suggests this only resulted in a 0.15% reduction in the number of people trying to access care.

Analysis of available data also shows that capacity is not the issue. Regions with poor hospital discharge performances were not regions with low social care capacity. In fact it was reported last winter that 16,000 social care beds around the UK were empty last winter.

To help understand this issue more closely, at CHS Healthcare we conducted a survey of social care staff and managers. More than three quarters (78%) of respondents told us that capacity within care services was not a cause for delays for patients who come directly from hospital. The majority of care workers in fact reported that paperwork, admin and bureaucracy (54%), no clear discharge planning pathway (48%), and delays in agreeing funding (47%) were the biggest causes of delayed discharge.

With national one-size-fits-all approaches so far missing the mark, we must invest in bespoke regional initiatives to get people the care they need this winter.

Local authorities and social care staff have been working hard to address this issue. With local knowledge and understanding built on 25 years of collaboration, CHS Healthcare is here to help this winter and beyond.

We provide a free and independent service to help individuals and families who are looking for self-funded care options. We understand there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to finding the right care. We take time to understand individual care needs, supporting people every step of the way so that they can find the care that meets their needs. Our expert local knowledge allows us to source the right provider – whether that's in a care home or helping someone to live independently in their own home.

We offer guidance and information around funding and any available benefits and help ensure people fully understand how their assessments will work. We'll give an independent view of the appropriate options available, supporting families and individuals to make an informed choice all the way through to making the care arrangements.

In addition to our free care-finding service, CHS Healthcare also offers a flexible suite of commissioned and managed services to local authorities, ICBs and NHS trusts. Helping people find the right care, at the right time, is what we do.

Seb Stewart is commercial director, CHS Healthcare

l To find out more about how CHS Healthcare can help people in your community who are in need of finding appropriate care, contact sebastian.stewart@chshealthcare.co.uk