Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ring-fence additional funding to enable social care providers and local authorities to bring support worker pay in line with equivalent NHS pay bands.

The Local Government Finance Settlement makes an additional £3.7 billion available to councils for 2022/23. This will ensure councils have the resources needed to deliver key services, including adult social care and meet pressures including the costs of the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage. There are no current plans to ring-fence additional funding to care providers and/or local authorities for care worker pay.