Lord Warner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-11-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their experience with the collapse of Southern Cross, what contingency plans they have in the event of a significant withdrawal of large and medium-sized providers of residential and nursing home care from the provision of publicly-funded social care.
Lord Prior of Brampton
It is unacceptable for vulnerable people who need care and support to have their services interrupted if their provider fails financially.
The Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to step in and ensure people’s needs continue to be met if their provider fails financially and their services cease. These duties apply to all people receiving care services, regardless of who pays for them, and there are reciprocal arrangements in all countries of the United Kingdom. The Government has supported local authorities with this duty and recently published guidance for local authorities to assist them in developing contingency plans for managing provider failure. This guidance was co-produced with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government information Unit.
The Care Act also established the Care Quality Commission (CQC) with a new function to oversee the finances of the largest and most difficult to replace providers. This oversight function would provide early warning to relevant local authorities in the event that one of the providers in the CQC scheme was likely to fail financially and their services cease. This would allow local authorities time to implement contingency plans. This CQC Market Oversight scheme is now fully functional.
