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 ensure that patients who need ongoing social care support can leave hospital safely.

The Department is working closely with NHS England, local government and social care providers to ensure that patients who need ongoing social care support can leave hospital safely. We have made available £500 million to support safe and timely discharges from hospital this winter. We committed a further £200 million to fund short term National Health Service step-down care packages and wrap-around primary and community health services to support patients’ recovery.