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 work with (a) Integrated Care Boards and (b) housing providers to provide support for people leaving hospital.

On 30 January 2025, the Government published the policy framework for the Better Care Fund (BCF) for 2025/26, which will take effect on 1 April. The framework requires National Health Service integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities to agree to a joint plan to deliver the objectives of the BCF. The objectives include that local areas must agree to plans that achieve more timely and effective discharge from hospital. It is a national condition of the BCF that the development of joint plans must involve joint working with local housing authorities.

Housing adaptations, including those delivered through the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), support the BCF’s objectives by helping towards the costs of making changes to people’s homes to enable them to stay well, safe, and independent at home for longer.

We have provided an immediate in-year uplift to the DFG of £86 million in 2024/25. This increase will provide approximately 7,800 additional home adaptations. This is on top of the £625 million paid to local authorities in May 2024. This uplift to the DFG will be maintained for 2025/26, so central funding for the DFG in 2025/26 will be £711 million.