Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 67 of the People at the Heart of Care white paper, published in December 2021, whether it remains her Department's policy that the remainder of the funding to support the adult social care workforce will be allocated in 2024.

The Government is fully committed to the 10-year vision for adult social care set out in the People at the Heart of Care white paper. We want care to be outstanding quality, personalised and accessible. The social care workforce remains at the heart of our reform plans. Our vision is for an adult social care workforce where people feel supported, recognised, and have opportunities to develop and progress. Our workforce reforms will provide the workforce with more support to develop and progress within their careers and will improve the quality, safety, and personalisation of care.

The Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care plan, published in April 2023, set out how we are investing up to £700 million over this year and next, building on over £100 million already invested in 2022/23. This included substantial investment on workforce reform including a new care workforce pathway, a new level 2 qualification, investment in apprenticeships and funding to pay for thousands of learning and development courses for social care staff. Since then, we have announced an additional £570 million funding boost for local authorities to make tangible improvements to adult social care workforce capacity, including to boost care worker pay.

Despite some delays, we are making good progress and have recently announced the launch of the Pathway, Apprenticeship fund and the specification for the qualification as well as some additional funding for social care staff learning and development. We remain committed to the delivery of the whole programme.