Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what modelling his Department has undertaken of the effect on adult social care of different funding allocations for such services.

Officials in the Department and across Government are working hard to understand pressures on the system and are considering adult social care expenditure and future demand as part of the Spending Review process. This includes modelling of the effect on adult social care of different funding allocations.

The Spending Review process will formally conclude on 25 November 2015, when the Chancellor will announce the outcome.

The Department has already commissioned a full review of the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula (which is used to allocate funding to local authorities based on indicators such as need, population and wealth) from the Personal Social Services Research Unit (at the University of Kent and the London School of Economics) and LG Futures (a consultancy).

As part of this review, 53 councils have contributed the most detailed data yet obtained for social care allocations. The researchers are currently writing up the research which will be published in due course.