Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing funding for the Better Care Fund on integration between health and social care.

Year-on-year, over 90% of local Health and Wellbeing Boards agree that delivery of the Better Care Fund (BCF) has improved joint working between health and social care. In addition, local areas have demonstrated that they see benefits from the BCF by committing over £10 billion of additional voluntary contributions since 2019-20.

The Department are working with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to commission an 18 to 24 month evaluation of the BCF in 2024. The intention is that the evaluation will provide a robust evidence base to inform future funding decisions including information on the benefits, impacts, outcomes, and value for money, and offer recommendations for future policy development and fund design.