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 provide support for people discharged from hospital to return to their homes.

The Department’s Hospital Discharge and Community Support Guidance, recommends a discharge to assess, home first approach to hospital discharge. Multi-disciplinary hospital discharge teams and care transfer hubs should work together so that, other than in exceptional circumstances, no one should transfer permanently into a care home for the first time directly following an acute hospital admission.

This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidance/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidance