Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to improve standards of social care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. They monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. The vast majority of care services provide high quality care and support, with 83% of all social care settings rated good or outstanding by the CQC in October 2023.

The Department is taking steps to further improve the standards of adult social care. We have made a landmark shift in how we understand local authorities are delivering adult social care against the Care Act 2014 and holding them to account for the standard of care they provide.

CQC assessment of local authorities and published ratings will tell us how local authorities are meeting their statutory duties and responsibilities under the Care Act 2014. The assessments focus on four themes linked to part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including; working with people, providing support, ensuring safety and leadership. These assessments will increase transparency and local accountability, meaning people will be able to hold their local authority to account and, ultimately, have access to the consistent, high-quality care and support they deserve – irrespective of where they live. They will help to raise standards of care by making good practice, positive outcomes, and outstanding quality easier to spot and share nationally.

The CQC will also identify where improvement and additional support is needed, and the Secretary of State has new powers to intervene to secure improvement in serious cases where a local authority has failed or is failing to discharge its Care Act duties to an acceptable standard. As part of this, the Department is working in collaboration with sector partners to deliver an annual programme of support to local authorities to drive performance. For 2023/2024, we are providing £16 million to make support available to local authorities and their partners.