Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the ability of local authority care commissioners to pay the UK Homecare Association recommended minimum price for homecare.

The Department has not made an assessment of the ability of local authority care commissioners to pay UK Homecare Association (UKHCA) recommended minimum price for homecare, neither has the Department made a comparative assessment of trends in the value of contracts for charities providing regulated care and the UKHCA minimum price for homecare.

The Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to shape their local markets so that there is an adequate supply of provision which ensures all adult social care service users have a choice of high-quality services.

As a result, in the case of state-funded care, local authorities negotiate individually with care providers to achieve a balance of quality, effectiveness and value for money for the public purse.

The level of fees charged to people who fund their own care is a private contractual arrangement.