Kent County Council is set to be handed an extra £6.2 million to help speed up patients' return home after a hospital stay during the winter months.

The government has allocated £240m to reduce the pressure on the NHS to prevent a repeat of last year's winter crisis when sick people slept in hospital corridors as no beds were available.

In Kent, the money will be spent on "promoting well-being, promoting independence and supporting independence".

At a cabinet meeting today, council leader Paul Carter said: "This is very welcome news from central government, hopefully without too much prescription from civil servants.

"The most important thing is that we aid and abet health partners in getting people out of hospital in a timely way, back behind their own front doors where possible as fast as possible."

Around £300,000 is allocated for promoting well-being through increasing the hours of the care navigator programme, which supports people over 50 years old and their carers.

These funds will also help people settle back at home after being in the trauma and orthopaedic wards in east Kent.

While £3.5m will be spent on enhancing established services such as discharge teams and the care coordination centre at Gravesham Place.

An additional £2.3m will go towards helping more complex cases involving mental health and learning disabilities to become more independent after a hospital stay.