Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Deferred
Publish annual assessment of unmet care needs for adults, including methodology and supporting data.
Recommendation
The Government should publish an annual assessment of the level of unmet care needs for both older adults and working age disabled adults, publishing its methodology and supporting data to ensure transparency and allow for scrutiny. (Recommendation, Paragraph 21)
Government Response Summary
The government did not commit to publishing an annual assessment of unmet care needs. Instead, it described existing measures like the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) for measuring outcomes, and ongoing efforts to improve data quality and support local authority commissioning.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
Adult social care outcomes are measured at a national level through the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). ASCOF measures how well care and support services achieve the outcomes that have been shown by researchers to matter most to people. ASCOF comprises 19 metrics, which draw from a number of different data collections. We agree that better quality outcomes data will positively impact commissioning practices. DHSC is improving the quality of the underlying data sources, as well as taking steps to provide greater clarity on what ‘good’ outcomes look like. We are also improving the joining up of health and social care data, with the aim of generating new insights on outcomes across health and social care, to support local commissioning. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of local people. Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, and we are seeing several local authorities develop innovative outcomes-based commissioning approaches. We invested in a new national pilot training programme for senior local authority commissioners called Ignite, which helped local areas to develop their strategic planning skills. The final evaluation report in July 2025 will provide further insight into the programme’s successes and ways we could improve it. Following this, we will be able to better understand the merits of investing in a future training programme for commissioners. Costs to the care system