The current budget pressures are challenging. There are a number of changes in social care that address the needs of people leaving hospital including those that live alone.

The initiatives necessary to enable safe and timely discharge are included in the Operational Resilience and Capacity Planning Guidance and in the conditions for the Better Care Fund. For example they both require the National Health Service and local government to implement seven day working to facilitate timely discharge. Both require the effective engagement of the voluntary sector.

System Resilience plans and Better Care Fund plans take forward the rapid commissioning of care and support services to enable people who live alone to receive support and to recover. These place a significant emphasis on integration, making sure that vulnerable people have joined up care plans in which their own self-care is supported, and ensuring good communication and engagement of family and friends who may well not live with the patient. In many cases this involves collaboration with voluntary and community based networks that can provide timely voluntary assistance for people who may live alone.

The Government has provided £700 million this year to help the NHS cope with winter pressures. This funding will provide more bed space and pay for additional clinical staff, as well as measures to prevent delayed discharges of patients. A percentage of this money is being spent to secure joint health and care solutions to safe discharge. The Government has created the Better Care Fund, now worth £5.3 billion, to promote integration across health and care. Better Care Fund plans will also contribute to reduced admissions and delayed discharge. The Social Care Action fund has committed £2 million to scale up and test social action that impacts on admissions and discharge.