So we've been paid the money. Now we have to make the choices… Some £37m from a combined Department for Communities and Local Government /Department of Health initiative to ease the serious pressures that have built up in English accident and emergency (A and E) departments since before last Christmas.

This funding is welcome at a time when hard-pressed councils are seeking to deal with increasing need amidst declining resources. Analysis of national A and E waiting times show they are partly due to delays in admitting people who ‘need admission', while beds are occupied by people with complex needs for whom arrangements should be speeded up to enable people to leave hospital more quickly – and, of course, safely.