Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the creation of a National Care Service.

The Government is committed to building consensus on the long-term reform needed to create a National Care Service, including by engaging cross-party and with people who draw on care and support.

Alongside our plan for health, we will create a 10-year plan for social care which recognises the importance of social care in its own right, as well as its role in the success of the National Health Service. On 10 October, we took a critical step by introducing legislation to establish the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for care professionals to ensure care workers are recognised and fairly rewarded for the important work they do.

To stabilise the system in the short term, we are providing at least £600 million of new grant funding for social care to support local authorities. This is part of a broader real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of approximately 3.2%.