Health Management and Policy Alert

Care Quality Commission review and assessment of local authority functions in relation to adult social care 2023 to 2024: grant determination

Department of Health and Social Care -
The new duty on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to review and assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties under part 1 of the Care Act 2014 commenced in April 2023. This guidance gives details and allocations of funding for local authorities in relation to the CQC assessment.

• Guidance
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Adult social care and the NHS: two sides of the same coin

NHS Confederation -
This report provides an overview of total capacity and national trends across the health and care sector as well as the variation across the country. It focuses on demand for and provision of state-funded social care for older people as the largest group drawing on care and support but finds that fewer people are being supported by state-funded social care in England despite the increase in people aged 65 and over. However, the need for care and support is also increasing among both working-age adults and children.

• Report
• NHS Confederation - publications

Care for our future: the roadmap to a sustainable future for adult social care

Care England -

This document from Care England (a registered charity and a representative body for small, medium and large providers of adult social care in England) sets out the sector’s priorities across three key themes – workforce, funding and integration. The roadmap issues a series of policy recommendations for the next government to implement within 100 days, two years and five years of entering office. The plan is backed by major representative groups from across the sector.

• Roadmap
• More detail

Carenomics: unlocking the economic power of care

Future Social Care Coalition (FSSC) - 

This report from a cross party coalition including former health and care ministers, employers and unions, makes the economic case for investing in social care, setting out the benefits this investment would have to the wider economy. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, this report emphasises the substantial return on investment that social care could deliver. Potential benefits include improving employment chances for disabled people, reducing pressure on the NHS, reducing costs for employers, levelling up for poorer areas, and building a more purposeful economy.

• Report
• FSSC website 

A strategy for the care workforce

 

This report, developed with care workers and their trade unions, foregrounds care workers voices and experiences to spotlight current challenges across the care economy. It lays out the critical building blocks of a care workforce strategy that are common to childcare and social care. The proposals are aimed to ensure all care workers in England are valued and supported, as a key means of addressing the current staffing crisis and improving access to and quality of social and childcare services.

• Report
• More detail
• Press release

Operational framework for adult social care intervention in local authorities

Department of Health and Social Care - 

This framework is intended to provide information to local authorities in England on the government’s approach to intervention in adult social care. New powers of intervention were introduced through the Health and Care Act 2022. These powers enable the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to intervene where they are satisfied that local authorities have failed or are failing to discharge Care Act 2014 functions to an acceptable standard. The framework is aimed at directors of adult social services, chief executives and elected members of local authorities.

• Framework
• More detail

Vacancies are falling but social care still needs a long-term workforce plan

The King's Fund - 

Social care managed to recruit more staff in 2022/23, thanks to an influx of overseas workers. But a long-term solution is what’s really needed, says Simon Bottery (Senior Fellow, Social Care, at The King's Fund).

• Blog

The caring penalty

Joseph Rowntree Foundation -
This report outlines how unpaid carers provide a service to society, but argues that they shoulder a financial penalty in doing so. It uses data from Understanding Society and looks at the magnitude, causes, and distribution of the carer pay penalty and how policies can help mitigate it.

• Report
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation - publications

The size and structure of the adult social care workforce in England: workforce supply and demand trends 2022/23

Skills for Care -
Workforce supply and demand is a key issue for the adult social care sector and in recent years workforce supply has experienced significant fluctuations due to policy changes and external factors. The information in this short report, provides the latest figures and also context surrounding this topic. This report looks at changes in the workforce since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and before where relevant, using Skills for Care’s workforce estimates sector between 2012/13 and 2022/23.

• Report
• Skills for Care - publications

Spring survey 2023

Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) -
This survey shows that short-term funding boosts from Government has helped reduce the number of people waiting for care and increased support for people at home. It also finds that, despite the progress, care waiting lists remain high and could rise again this winter without more staff. ADASS warns that the NHS backlog, rising mental health needs, support around domestic abuse of people with care and support needs, and carer breakdown means most councils are not confident they can offer the minimum social care support in their communities required by law.

• Report
• ADASS - press release