Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures are in place to ensure that alternative accommodation is found for people evicted from a care home.

Should a person have to leave a care home, the Care Act requires the local authority to carry out an assessment of their needs. The local authority must decide if the person has eligible needs by considering the outcomes they wish to achieve, what their needs are and how these impact on their wellbeing.

Where a person is assessed as having eligible care and support needs – for example, for care and support, public assistance with the cost of care, help with arranging care or information and advice – those needs must be met by their local authority.

For a person placed in residential care by a local authority, the authority would continue to have a duty to meet their needs and to arrange alternative care services. Should a person be able to fund their own care but lack capacity to arrange it, the local authority has powers under the Act to meet their needs.

Statutory guidance issued under the Care Act sets out when a local authority should use these powers.