Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by the Competition and Markets Authority that elderly people in care homes who pay their own fees are subsidising those whose places are paid for by councils by up to £12,000 a year; and whether they intend to take any action to prevent such cross-subsidisation.

The Care Act 2014 placed a duty on local authorities in England to shape their local markets to ensure that they are sustainable, diverse and offer high quality care and support for people in their local area. Prices and fee rates paid by commissioners to provider organisations must reflect these new duties.

The Department published the online only Care and Support statutory guidance setting out how councils should meet these new duties when commissioning, including the consideration of the actual costs of care and support when negotiating fee levels. The level of fees charged to a self-funder is a private contractual arrangement.

The Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) market study into care homes, published on 30 November 2017, raises some complex and important issues for the care home market. Government will publish a formal response to the CMA report within 90 days and will take forward these complex issues as part of the Green Paper on adult social care which will be published in summer 2018.