Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of care provider closures in each local authority area since January 2024.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets, and ensure that people have a range of high-quality, sustainable and person-centred adult social care and support options available to them, and that they can access the services that best meet their needs.  Care providers entering and exiting is a normal part of a functioning market, and local authorities should have appropriate contingency plans in place depending on the services being provided.

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Market Oversight Scheme monitors the financial health of typically the largest and potentially most difficult-to-replace providers in the adult social care sector. The CQC will notify local authorities if they consider it likely that any provider’s services will be disrupted because of business failure.   Since January 2024, there have been no such notifications.

The number of adult social care providers deregistered by the CQC from 1 January 2024, broken down by local authority, is shown in the attached table.