Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Rejected
Develop robust methodology for measuring care's impact on people's lives, health, and the economy.
Recommendation
The Government must also develop a robust methodology for measuring the impact of care on people’s lives, the wider health system, and the economy. As well as supporting the case for reform, such methodology would help councils to deliver outcome-based commissioning, which is more likely to provide people with meaningful care than the current task-based approach. (Recommendation, Paragraph 22)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government rejected the recommendation to develop a robust methodology for measuring the impact of care. It stated that existing procedures for impact assessments for policy or fiscal decisions relating to the workforce are sufficient and a new form of cross-government impact assessment is not accepted.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government · verbatim extract
Rejected
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
Read the full response on Parliament ↗