Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the October 2015 Government document Building the Right Support: A national implementation plan to develop community services and close inpatient facilities, how much money has accrued to the public purse from changes in the number of beds for people with learning disabilities and autism; and what proportion of that amount has been reallocated to local authorities.

As set out in ‘Building the Right Support’, any funding released by the transfer of patients from inpatient to community-based or other models of care will be reinvested in those better alternatives to hospital.

In 2018/19, NHS England’s specialised commissioning function has transferred £53 million of funds, previously allocated to secure in-patient care, to Transforming Care Partnerships (TCPs) so that they can support new individual support packages for the patients discharged, or invest in new community services.

NHS England does not collect data on clinical commissioning group (CCG) funding which has been reinvested into community-based care.

TCPs continue to develop their funding arrangements between their constituent CCGs and local authorities, and NHS England is currently collecting data on these arrangements. This information will help in assessing how much NHS funding is planned to be transferred to local authorities via pooled budgets and/or funding transfers under section 256 of the NHS Act 2006 so that the shared ambition of the Transforming Care programme can be realised.