Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the extent to which residents and families are presented with a genuine choice when a care home placement becomes local‑authority funded, as opposed to being offered relocation as the only viable option.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In doing so, they should use local population and market data to inform commissioning decisions, involve people and providers in the commissioning process, and encourage a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate and high-quality care services in their local area.

Local authorities also have a duty to provide continuity of care to minimise disruption and to ensure that people continue to receive the care and support they need and do not suffer a gap in their care service when care arrangements change.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how local authorities in England are meeting the full range of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including those related to commissioning. The CQC is under a duty to inform my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if they consider an authority is failing to discharge its functions. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has powers to intervene where he is satisfied that authorities have failed or are failing to discharge Care Act functions to an acceptable standard. All reports are made available on CQC’s website and can be found at the following link:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/local-authority-assessment-reports