Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of a market failure in the domiciliary care sector on local authorities.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets according to local needs, which includes securing the right balance of domiciliary, residential and other provision. Throughout the pandemic, we have made available over £2 billion in specific funding for adult social care, in addition to over £6 billion for local authorities to address pressures on their services. In partnership with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we carried out a service continuity and care market review to understand the robustness of local authorities’ plans and the level of support needed to maintain continuity of provision through winter 2020-21.