Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether initial reports on performance metrics in social care have been received from local authorities, as was set out as a condition of funding in the White Paper Next Steps to Put People at the Heart of Care, published on 4 April.

The Government has now received initial reports from all local authorities in England, as part of the £1.4 billion Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) grant conditions.

In accordance with the guidance published in March 2023, local authorities can use MSIF flexibly to drive tangible improvements across a range of target areas, to best address local sustainability and improvement needs. These target areas are reducing adult social care waiting times, increasing adult social care workforce capacity and retention, and increasing fee rates paid to adult social care providers. Local authorities must evidence improvement in at least one of the target areas, using Departmental performance metrics provided in the guidance. Improvements will be assessed in local authorities’ final reports, which will be submitted to the Department in May 2024.