Sheffield Council to tackle poor infection prevention with £750,000 boost to staff

Measures such as handwashing, getting rid of waste safely, wearing protective equipment and vaccines are all important parts of reducing the spread of infectious diseases.

That is why councillors are considering spending £750,000 from the public health grant reserve to boost work on infection prevention and control (IPC) as the city is falling behind.

If approved in the adult health and social care committee meeting on Wednesday, September 20, the council will spend £250,000 per year for three years to support work in this area.

This will pay for four new IPC nurses plus administration support to join the existing two members of staff focussing on this work.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Sheffield was identified as having a low level of IPC support in community settings, according to an audit by Public Health England.

Sheffield spends a low level of grant money on community IPC compared to other areas in Yorkshire and the Humber, according to a report prepared by council officers for the adult social care meeting this week. This additional funding aims to address that.

Council officers said: “Our assessment is that while some settings have good knowledge and practice of effective IPC, there are a significant proportion with poor knowledge and practice who need to be supported to follow good practice.

“We are not assured there is currently sufficient skills and capacity within providers or within existing support systems to enable good IPC practice across the system.”

As well as health risks, regulators have the power to limit new referrals to a service with poor IPC and if a serious incident occurred because of poor IPC, the council could risk court action and expensive costs with it.