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 increase social care capacity to support the timely discharge of medically fit patients in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.

The Government is committed to tackling delayed discharges to ensure that people do not spend longer than necessary in hospital and to free up hospital beds. This year approximately £9 billion has been committed to the Better Care Fund (BCF) which requires integrated care boards and local authorities to make joint plans and pool budgets to deliver better joined-up care. This funding can be used flexibly to expand social care capacity, including home care and short-term reablement services.

From 2026/27, we will reform the BCF to ensure consistent joint funding for services essential to integrated health and social care such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation, and reablement.