Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allocate funds over the next four financial years for the increase of "step down care" nursing home beds to relieve pressure on acute care hospitals and adult social care services.

The Care Act 2014 placed a duty on councils to offer a meaningful choice of services, so that people have a range of high quality, appropriate care options to choose from and that they get the services that best meet their needs. Decisions on how to allocate funding to comply with this duty are for councils.

We are also providing councils with an additional £1 billion of grant funding for adults and children’s social care, on top of maintaining £2.5 billion of existing social care grants next year. In addition, the Government has proposed a 2% precept that will enable councils to access a further £500 million for adult social care.