Health and Care White Paper: Social Care Implications

The Government yesterday published a White Paper setting out its legislative proposals for a Health and Care Bill - which we have reported generally on here: Health and Care White Paper: Integration and Innovation, Patrick Parkin (burges-salmon.com)

This update looks at the specific implications for Social Care. 

Whilst the main focus of the paper is on the healthcare system, the Government intends to bring forward separate proposals on social care reform later this year. As the paper notes “No one piece of legislation can fix all the challenges facing health and social care – nor should it try – but it will play an important role in meeting the longer-term health and social care challenges we face as a society”.

A summary of the key proposals for social care in the white paper are:

• Increased sharing of (more standardised and clearer) data – both between social care providers (importantly including private providers as well as Local Authority providers) and the NHS.  This looks to entrench and build on the increased sharing of information between providers and the NHS which has become more prevalent during the pandemic in the last 12 months;

• A new duty for the Care Quality Commission to assess Local Authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties. This is in addition to proposed new powers for the Secretary of State to intervene and provide support where there is a risk of local authorities’ failing to meet these duties. This seeks to avoid a post-code lottery in care provision and drive a more uniform level of care across England to meet one of the new main proposals enhancing public confidence.

• Proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to expand the powers of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (which currently allows the Secretary of State to provide financial assistance to not-for-profit bodies engaged in the provision of health or social care services in England) to widen this to allow financial assistance to be given to any bodies which are engaged in the provision of social care services in England. The bill will not prescribe in what circumstances the power can be used, or how it should be provided, instead, “this power will act as a legal foundation for future policy proposals, as and when required”. The financial assistance will be determined on a case by case basis and range from grants and loans or loan guarantees to taking part ownership (purchase of share capital). Likewise, the assistance could be a single payment to one provider, or multiple payments to the entire sector.

The reforms are a step in the right direction for social care reform, but we, and stakeholders across the social care sector,  will be keen to receive more details of the long promised (and overdue) social care reform later this year.