Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will include forming and developing relationship in the eligibility criteria of the Care Act 2014 Part 1 regulations.

The Care Act 2014 will introduce a modern system thatwill promote and maintain the wellbeing of people who have care and support needs and support them in living independent lives. These enhance the areas of action set out in the 2010 Autism Strategy and reaffirmed recently in Think Autism.

The Care Act includes a power to make regulations to set the national eligibility criteria for adult care and support. The national eligibility threshold will provide a similar level of access to care and support when we move from the current system to the reformed system in April 2015.

The Department is currently consulting on the draft regulations and statutory guidance that will support the implementation of the Care Act. This includes the draft eligibility regulations which set the level of the threshold, and your comments will be considered when we finalise and publish the regulations in October. The public consultation started on 6 June and runs until 15 August 2014.