Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department has offered to the Care Quality Commission to reduce the backlog of (a) initial inspections and (b) reinspections of healthcare providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials meet fortnightly with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to discuss measures CQC have put in place to address among other issues, delays in the production of inspection reports and initial inspection and reinspection.
As part of this process, the CQC provides fortnightly updates to senior Departmental officials on the work it is doing to improve and ensure it has robust systems in place to support the changes it is making to deliver its assessment activity of the providers it regulates. This increased reporting to, and oversight from, the Department also allows the level of risk across the CQC’s delivery to be monitored at a senior level.
Delays to the CQC’s inspection activities are partially due to failures of its IT systems. The CQC has accepted recommendations of the independent review into the CQC’s technology which was published in March 2025 and is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/independent-review-cqc-technology-published
The CQC is currently working to review options for alternative methods of inspection report publication while work is carried out to make necessary changes to its IT systems.
The introduction of a ‘hybrid’ approach which launched on 2 December 2024 aims to streamline the existing process by discontinuing scoring at the evidence category level and instead reporting at the quality statement level. This change is intended to improve efficiency for CQC staff. In addition, efforts are underway to address the backlog of ‘stuck’ assessments within the system. As of 24 April 2025, the current number of ‘stuck’ assessments is 52, a reduction of 448.
Work continues to further lower this number and to strengthen the monitoring and management of assessment delays.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for Care Quality Commission initial inspections for (a) GP practices, (b) dental practices and (c) care homes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has introduced additional oversight measures to ensure significant improvements are made to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) operational performance.
CQC is aware of the issues providers have experienced with delays in processing registration applications and the reduction in the number of assessments it undertakes.
CQC is progressing four immediate actions and five foundational improvements, which includes clearing the backlog of registration applications and making improvements to its assessment approach to enable it to complete more, and better quality, assessments. These actions will ensure CQC is more efficient, and lead to a reduction in the time providers wait before they receive a first inspection and rating.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of waiting times for Care Quality Commission initial inspections for (a) GP practices, (b) dental practices and (c) care homes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has introduced additional oversight measures to ensure significant improvements are made to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) operational performance.
CQC is aware of the issues providers have experienced with delays in processing registration applications and the reduction in the number of assessments it undertakes.
CQC is progressing four immediate actions and five foundational improvements, which includes clearing the backlog of registration applications and making improvements to its assessment approach to enable it to complete more, and better quality, assessments. These actions will ensure CQC is more efficient, and lead to a reduction in the time providers wait before they receive a first inspection and rating.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill on the number of local authority funded adult social care beds in (a) England and (b) Hampshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.
The additional funding available to Hampshire in 2025/26 means that they will see an increase to their core spending power of up to 6.7% in cash terms.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of local authority funded adult social care beds (a) leaving and (b) joining the care sector.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any provider carrying out regulated care activities must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which includes providing information on the number of registered care beds which can be occupied by the local authority, the National Health Service, or self-funded residents. If a regulated activity is no longer being provided, the provider must notify the CQC so that the location can be removed from the register. However, the CQC’s registration does not require providers to inform the CQC if care beds are funded by the local authority.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes in local authority funded adult social care beds due to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill on the number of delayed hospital discharges.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has announced an additional £502 million of support for local authorities in England to manage the impact of the changes to employer National Insurance contributions announced at the Autumn Budget
To repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the Government has taken the necessary decision to increase employer National Insurance. A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the bill containing the changes to employer National Insurance contributions. The TIIN sets out the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill on the number of local authority funded adult social care beds.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government did consider the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2024. To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of unpaid carers (a) are given practical support and (b) are signposted to information and advice following a Carer’s Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities (LAs) have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. Under the Care Act 2014, they are required to undertake Carer’s Assessments to support people caring for their family and friends who appear to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from them.
In 2023/24, 360,815 carers were either supported or assessed by LAs in England. Of these, 107,935, or 30%, were provided with direct support, either via a direct payment, a managed personal budget or LA commissioned support; 199,750, or 55%, were provided with direct support in the form of information, advice, and other universal services or signposting; and 53,125, or 15%, were not provided with direct support following an assessment.
Lord Darzi’s independent review of the National Health Service is clear that a fresh approach to supporting and involving unpaid carers is required to improve outcomes for carers, people needing care and the NHS.
The Government recognises the challenges facing the adult social care system. That is why the Government is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
The Commission will start a national conversation about what working age adults, older people, and their families expect from adult social care, including exploring the needs of unpaid carers who provide vital care and support.
We will carefully consider these findings as part of our 10-year plan for reforming and modernising the NHS and as we develop plans to reform adult social care, including through the National Care Service.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding he will provide towards NHS continuing healthcare checklists over the next five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No funding has ever been specifically allocated for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) checklists, and as such, we do not hold this information. NHS England provides funding to integrated care boards (ICBs) to fulfil their core duty to commission high-quality care in a cost-effective way. CHC funding is calculated using the ICB allocation formula, which takes into consideration attributes of the local population to assess the level of need. It is for individual ICBs to decide how best to use their allocation to deliver their functions.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of levels of access to adult social care services in England on unpaid carers’ ability to participate in paid employment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care has a role to play in helping unpaid carers to participate and stay in paid employment. The Government recognises the challenges facing the adult social care system. That is why the Government is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
The Commission will start a national conversation about what working age adults, older people, and their families expect from adult social care, including exploring the needs of unpaid carers who provide vital care and support.
We have already taken steps to support unpaid carers to balance work and care, including from April 2025 increasing the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196. This means carers can earn up to £10,000 a year whilst still retaining Carer's Allowance; this is approximately an additional £2,000 a year.
I recently met with employers and the Department for Business and Trade to discuss how employers are driving best practice in supporting working carers. The Government is committed to reviewing the implementation of Carer’s Leave and examining the benefits of introducing paid Carer’s Leave.