Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to announce the rate for NHS-funded nursing care for residents of care homes for 2017-18.

The Department appreciates the importance of timely communication of the rate of National Health Service-funded Nursing Care for care homes.

The new rate will be paid on an interim basis whilst further work is done to review the element of the rate for agency nursing staff (which could lead to a reduction to the rate from 1 January 2017) and to consult on introducing regional variation from April 2017.

The rate for 2017/18 will be published following completion of work which is being done by the Department.