Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure annual statutory reviews for people in care are undertaken.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities must keep care and support plans under review, respond to reasonable requests for review, and update plans when circumstances change, involving the individual drawing on care and support, and their carer, if applicable, throughout.

Local authorities should establish systems that allow the proportionate monitoring of both care and support plans to ensure that needs are continuing to be met. In the absence of any request of a review, or any indication that circumstances may have changed, the local authority should conduct a periodic review of the plan. It is the expectation that local authorities should conduct a review of the plan no later than every 12 months after the plan is first agreed or last reviewed.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how local authorities in England are meeting the full range of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including how local authorities assess the needs of individuals who draw on care and support. The assessments identify local authorities’ strengths and areas for improvement, facilitating the sharing of good practice and helping us to target support where it is most needed. If the CQC identifies that a local authority has failed or is failing to discharge its duties under the Care Act to an acceptable standard, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has powers to intervene. Reports are made available on the CQC’s website, at the following link:

www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/local-authority-assessment-reports