Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has any further plans to make support available for care home providers with the rising cost of living.

We are making available up to £7.5 billion of additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge, with up to £2.8 billion available in 2023/24 and up to £4.7 billion in 2024/25. We expect councils to use the additional £2.8 billion funding available for social care, a more than real terms increase in funding dedicated for social care, to go beyond meeting inflationary pressures, including those experienced in 2022/23.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets. Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to develop and build local market capacity.