Hospital trusts in Wandsworth are set to receive over £1 million to help alleviate winter pressures on the NHS.

The Wandsworth local authority will receive a total of £1,297,456 as part of the programmed announced by Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The aim is to reduce delayed transfers of care and free up beds.

The extra funding has been rolled out across England with a total of £240 million distributed across local authorities. London local authorities will receive £37,170,352 overall.

Councils have been allocated the funding based on the adult social care relative needs formula and letters have been sent out to inform them.

The health and care system has already been working hard to ensure patients return home from hospital once their treatment has finished and delays attributable to adult social care have been reduced by 39% across England since February 2017.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “I want to help the NHS through this winter. I have already provided funding for hospitals to make upgrades to their buildings to deal with pressures this winter, and I am making an extra £240 million available to councils to pay for social care packages this winter to support our NHS.

“We will use this money to help people who don’t need to be in hospital, but do need care, to get back home, into their communities, so we can then free up those vital hospital beds, and help more people get the hospital care they need.”

A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: “The Government has announced £240m of additional funding for councils to spend on adult social care services to alleviate winter pressures on the NHS, getting patients home quicker and freeing up hospital beds. Wandsworth is one of the country’s strongest performers in tackling so-called “bed blocking” and this additional cash allocation will help us fund the services we provide to support people with social care needs on their discharge from hospital.”