Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of social care budget changes on A&E attendances.

There has been no assessment made of the effect of social care budget changes on accident and emergency (A&E) attendances. However, the Government has legislated to establish the Better Care Fund from 2015-16 to provide better integrated care. One of the conditions of the Better Care Fund is to improve the delivery of health and social care by preventing people reaching crisis point, and to reduce the quantity of non-elective admissions to acute care, which may serve to ease the pressures on A&E departments.