Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that deafblind people can access care needs assessments.

Under the Care Act 2014 and Care and Support (Assessment) Regulations 2014, local authorities are responsible for ensuring deafblind people in their area access the right care and support. This includes making contact with and keeping a record of all deafblind people in their area and ensuring that needs assessments are carried out by a person who has specific training and expertise relating to individuals who are deafblind. In addition, under the Equality Act (2010), local authorities must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.

The Government recognises the many challenges facing the adult social care system and is taking steps to improve access to adult social care. We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission will make clear recommendations to define and build an adult social care system that will meet the current and future needs of our population. The commission will consider older people’s care and support for working age disabled adults separately, recognising that these services meet different needs.

In the interim, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are assessing how well local authorities in England are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including their duties relating to the access and provision of care and support for deafblind people. Support for deafblind people will form part of the CQC’s overall assessment of local authorities’ delivery of adult social care. In that context, the CQC will report when there is something to highlight, for example, something being done well, innovative practice or an area for improvement. If the CQC identifies a local authority has failed or is failing its functions to an acceptable standard, my Rt. Hon. friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has powers to intervene. The CQC has published over forty local authority ratings and reports, which are available at the following link:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/local-authority-assessment-reports