Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of delays experienced by families in receiving local authority financial assessments for care home placements; and what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on the timeliness of assessment and communications with families while assessments are outstanding.

Where local authorities decide to charge for the provision of care and support, they must follow the Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, and they must act under the Care and Support Statutory (CASS) guidance. Responsibility for interpreting and applying the regulations and guidance rests with local authorities.

While the CASS guidance does not set specific timelines for completing financial assessments, it does place clear communication duties on local authorities, including providing information relevant to a person’s circumstances and on ways to pay for care, in order to fulfil its duty under section 4 of the Care Act 2014.