Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent delayed discharges from hospital to (a) residential care and (b) homes with domiciliary care provision.

The Government is committed to ensuring that hospital departments are no longer blocked due to delayed discharges. By developing local partnership working between the National Health Service and social care, we will ensure that people are not stuck in hospital beds when they are well enough to go home.

The Government’s commitment to supporting providers to deliver better pay, conditions and training will help fill vacancies, so care providers can better support hospitals to reduce delayed discharges.