Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment the Government has made of the capacity of local authorities to implement the prevention duty under the provisions of the Care Act 2014.

The Department has prioritised prevention and through the Care Act 2014 it requires local authorities to provide or arrange for the provision of services, facilities or resources that will contribute towards preventing, delaying or reducing the needs for care and support of adults and carers.

For 2017/18, the Department has provided £7.274 million funding to the Local Government Association to provide sector led improvement support to councils. This includes support to help councils meet their prevention responsibilities. The programme is focusing on building leadership capacity and capability on integration and providing evidence-based decision-making in prevention and early intervention.