Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an exemption from the increase in employer's National Insurance contributions for care homes in which more than half of residents are funded by the local authority.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer National Insurance costs only. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach the Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional employer National Insurance contribution costs, as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care and wider local government spending as part of the Spending Review process.

The Government is providing a 6.8% cash terms increase in core council spending power in 2025/26. To support social care authorities to deliver key services in light of pressures, at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement we announced a further £200 million for adult and children’s social care. This will be allocated via the Social Care Grant, bringing the total increase of this grant in 2025/26 to £880 million, meaning that up to £3.7 billion of additional funding will be provided to social care authorities in 2025/26.