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 ensure (a) adequate and (b) sustainable funding for (i) social care and (ii) disability care services.

To enable local authorities to provide vital services such as adult social care, the Government is making up to £3.7 billion of additional funding available for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant, which can be used to address the range of pressures facing the adult social care sector. This is alongside an £86 million uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant to support an approximate additional 7,800 adaptations to homes for those with social care needs, to reduce hospitalisations and prolong independence.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, and are responsible for how they use the available funding to fulfil their duties under the Care Act (2014).

We are launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission is expected to begin in April 2025.

The commission will be comprehensive and will build on the expert proposals of other reviews, including that of Sir Andrew Dilnot, into care funding and support. It will be broader and wider than ever before, asking essential questions about the shape and future of the social care sector, including what long-term and sustainable funding solutions should look like.