Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that adults with autism are not placed in accommodation that disrupts access to established support networks.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services that put the wellbeing of people who draw on care at the centre of decisions.

The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out that health, care and support, and housing services should centre on the individual and their family. Housing services should be used to help promote an individual’s wellbeing, so that people in need of care and support and carers can build a full and active life. Suitability of living accommodation is one of the matters local authorities must take into account as part of their duty to promote an individual’s wellbeing.

The Department is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission, led by Baroness Casey, will start a national conversation about what working age adults, older people, and their families expect from adult social care. While the commission carries out its work, the Department is taking immediate action to improve adult social care.