Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish his Department's contingency plans for provider failure in the social care market.

Local authorities retain responsibility for managing provider failure in the social care market. The Government has worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and partners to publish guidance to support local authorities to develop contingency plans for managing the failure of a social care provider in their local area. The guidance can be found at:

http://www.lgiu.org.uk/report/care-and-continuity-guide/

The Care Act also gave the Care Quality Commission a new function to oversee the finances of care providers which are either large or whose provision is geographically concentrated as their financial failure would make it difficult for local authorities to discharge their statutory responsibilities.

The oversight function will provide early warning to relevant local authorities in the event that one of these providers is likely to fail and their services cease. This will allow local authorities time to implement contingency plans.