Local Authorities

For Local Authorities

Crisis and Resilience Fund: A Proven Delivery Partner for Your Council

Commission The Care Workers' Charity to administer CRF-funded grant schemes for your care workforce. We handle applications, eligibility, payments and reporting, with grants reaching workers within 48 hours.

520+
Grants exceeding £250k
with Oxfordshire CC
12
Local authorities covered
via Norfolk IRE programme
Download the Full Proposal

Crisis and Resilience Fund

The Crisis and Resilience Fund presents a direct opportunity to channel financial support to care workers in your area. CWC can administer a CRF-funded care workforce grant scheme on your behalf. You set the eligibility criteria and funding levels, and we handle delivery end to end. This includes rapid, cash-first payments with monitoring and outcomes reporting aligned to your assurance requirements.

Care workers are a critical cohort within the CRF’s intended reach. Financial pressures -transport, childcare, housing, essential living costs – can rapidly undermine their ability to stay in work. Early intervention through a targeted grant scheme helps prevent escalation, reduce agency reliance in your local workforce, and protect continuity of care.

Read our proposal by clicking above!

Partnerships Adapted to Your Local Authority's Needs

Every council's workforce challenges are different. We work with you to shape a grant scheme that fits your local priorities, your eligibility criteria, and your budget.

You define the eligibility criteria, grant amounts and funding levels to match local need
Flexible delivery models, from crisis grants to new starter support, scaled to your area
Reporting and outcomes aligned to your council's monitoring and audit requirements

Workforce Retention: Before Pressures become Crises

England’s adult social care sector has a significant staff turnover every year. Behind each departure is a cost to continuity of care, to the people who rely on it, and to councils already managing stretched commissioning budgets.

The Care Workers’ Charity is the only dedicated charity for the paid care workforce in England. We work with local authorities to deliver targeted, practical support that helps keep care workers in post – before pressures become crises.

Why Small Grants Matter at System Level
How one intervention builds three types of resilience
A £300 grant at the right moment can prevent outcomes that cost the system many times more
1

Worker resilience

A care worker facing a car breakdown, missed shift or housing shock receives a fast, direct grant and stays in post.

2

Package resilience

The person drawing on care keeps continuity with their regular worker. Short-term disruption doesn't crystallise into a longer, costlier package.

3

System resilience

Provider staffing holds. Colleagues absorb fewer extra shifts. Last-minute emergency commissioning is avoided. The cost of retention stays far below the cost of replacement.

A delivery model with a track record

We have been running commissioned grant partnerships with local authorities since 2021. Each scheme has been shaped to the council’s priorities, from rapid crisis response to new starter retention to regional support for internationally recruited workers. The numbers below are the cumulative picture across our active and previous partnerships.

How the Partnership Works

From your rules, to delivery, to outcomes you can report on

A three-step partnership built around your council's discretion. Nothing is delivered until you have signed off the framework.

1
Step 1

You set the rules

Your council retains full discretion over scheme design. Eligibility, grant types, target cohorts and reporting framework are all set by you.

  • Eligibility criteria: care role types, employment status, residency, income thresholds
  • Grant types and amounts: crisis, new starter, visa support, or new categories shaped to your area
  • Target cohorts: new starters, international recruits, domiciliary, or whole-workforce
  • Scale: single authority, or regional model across multiple councils
2
Step 2

CWC delivers

End-to-end administration against your rules. The work does not land on council teams. Your capacity goes into scheme design; ours goes into running it.

  • Applications and eligibility verification
  • Cash-first payments direct to applicants' bank accounts
  • "No wrong door" referrals to your debt advice, benefits and housing services
  • Audit-ready governance, public-funds compliant
3
Step 3

You see the outcomes

Reporting framed to your assurance and audit needs, ready for CRF outcome reviews and DASS-level reporting without retrofitting.

  • Grant volumes, spend and processing times
  • Cohort breakdowns aligned to your priorities
  • Mapped to CRF outcomes: crisis support, financial resilience, local landscape
  • Outputs you can put straight into council and DASS reporting
Audit-ready by design, not retrofitted. You are not setting up a new council function. You are commissioning one that already runs across active and previous LA partnerships.
Partnership Delivery, at a Glance
Five LA partnerships. Nearly £1m reaching care workers.
Combined figures across Oxfordshire, Norfolk-led IRE, Solihull and Bradford
2,043
Grants Awarded
Direct to care workers
£992k
Total Distributed
100% of council funding reaching workers
8 days
Avg. Turnaround
Application to payment

What our partnerships look like in practice

Every partnership starts with a conversation about local workforce need, not a fixed product. The shape of delivery, the eligibility criteria, the grant types and the reporting framework are all set with the council.

Oxfordshire County Council is now in its third year with us. The partnership has delivered over 520 grants worth more than £250,000 to care workers facing financial crisis. A New Starter Grants strand sits alongside the crisis grants, supporting workers in their first three months with day-one costs like transport, childcare and training. The model is shaped around recruitment as well as retention.

Norfolk County Council leads International Recruitment East, a regional programme spanning twelve local authorities. It provides targeted support for internationally recruited workers affected by provider licence revocations, with grants covering visa reimbursements and work expenses to enable immediate re-employment.

Bradford Council and Solihull Council are previous partners. Both demonstrate how the model flexes to different local contexts and commissioning arrangements.

Across all of these, ringfenced council funding goes directly to workers. CWC charges an administration fee proportionate to scheme scale, and reporting is aligned to council assurance and audit requirements from the start.

Proven Track Record

Our Local Authority Partnerships

Oxfordshire County Council

Entering Year 3


520+

Grants exceeding £250k
including New Starter Grants

Norfolk County Council

IRE Programme


12

Local authorities supported
across the East of England

Bradford Council

Previous Partner


Commissioned grant delivery
for local care workforce

Solihull Council

Previous Partner


Commissioned grant delivery
for local care workforce

Get in Touch

If you'd like to find out what a partnership could look like for your area, we'd welcome a conversation. There's no commitment involved, just a chance to understand your workforce picture and explore whether our offer is a good fit.

Taylor-Anne McCarthy

Head of Grants

taylor@thecwc.org.uk

Calvin Laverick

Policy and Projects Officer

calvin@thecwc.org.uk