Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the changes in the cost of funded nursing care on the commissioning decisions made by community care groups.

In July 2016 the National Health Service-funded Nursing Care rate for 2016/17 was increased to £156.25 on an interim basis. This was backdated to 1 April 2016 and was an increase of 40% over the 2015/16 rate.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for the funding provided to nursing care homes to support the provision of nursing care by a registered nurse and for commissioning decisions to meet the needs of the individual.

The Department considered the impact of the increase to the NHS-funded Nursing Care rate at the time of the review. The total cost of the increase to the rate of NHS-funded Nursing Care in 2016/17 was estimated at around £190 million.