Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to liaise with the social care sector on the formulation of the Government’s fair cost for care calculation outlined in the Government’s People at the Heart of Care White Paper.

In December 2021, we announced the £1.4 billion Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund. This funding is being provided over three years to support local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care. In January 2022, we published the Social Care Charging Reform impact assessment. This presented a range of estimates for the cost of implementing a fair cost of care. This is a consultation stage impact assessment and the Department is in the process of engaging with stakeholders to refine the evidence and analysis.

We have been working with the social care sector to produce guidance on the implementation of the Fund which will be published shortly. This will set out that, while local authorities are responsible for determining fee rates they pay providers, they will be required to conduct cost of care exercises and set out their plans for driving market sustainability, including progress towards a fair cost of care.