Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the conclusions of Independent Age into the performance of care homes across England that a third of local authorities experienced care home ratings falling.

The Care Act 2014 placed a duty on councils to offer a meaningful choice of services, so that people have a range of high quality, appropriate care options to choose from and that they get the services that best meet their needs.

83% of adult social care providers are rated as good or outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, as at March 2019, and the Department is working with the adult social care sector to implement Quality Matters – a shared commitment to take action to achieve high quality adult social care for service users, families, carers and everyone working in the sector.

The Green Paper, to be published at the earliest opportunity, will set out our proposals for a sustainable system in the long term and address issues related to the quality of care and variation in practice.