Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 85
Stakeholders have called for adult social care reform for years, and we commend the Government...
Recommendation
Stakeholders have called for adult social care reform for years, and we commend the Government for introducing many welcome initiatives such as around housing and data that could make a significant difference in the long-term. We are also pleased that many stakeholders welcome the Government’s vision for what good care looks like and how care is experienced by those receiving care and their families. However, the Government currently has nothing more than a vision. We are alarmed that so much of the detail within the People at the Heart of Care White Paper has yet to be worked out, and that there is no roadmap, no timetable, no milestones, and no measures of success. We note that the Health and Social Care Committee has called for a 10-year plan for adult social care in three separate reports since October 2020. The Government should publish a 10-year plan for how its vision in the People at the Heart of Care White Paper will be achieved, taking into account how the different policies interweave and affect one another. The plan should be co- produced with people with lived experience of receiving care and providing care, paid and unpaid. The Government should manage this set of reforms, alongside charging reforms, as a programme, and identify a Senior Responsible Officer. It should publish key milestones, a timetable, and measures of success, and report annually on progress to Parliament.
Government Response Summary
The government notes that the Older People’s Housing Task Force will provide an opportunity to consider detailed evidence of the operation of the planning system in supporting housing for older people and whether any changes are required, including in respect of use classes, but makes no firm commitments.
Paragraph Reference:
85
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Different specialist housing types, such as independent living, sheltered housing that provides an element of care, through to care homes, housing for older people, or those with a disability, may fall into either the C2 residential institution or C3 dwelling house use class, or in some cases it may be classed as sui generis (a class of its own). This provides flexibility to accommodate a wide range of housing and care models for older people and those people with a disability. While there are currently no plans for reform, the new Older People’s Housing Task Force (described above) will provide an opportunity to consider detailed evidence of the operation of the planning system in supporting housing for older people and whether any changes are required, including in respect of use classes. Government response 27 Workforce Conclusion 26 – 10-year strategy for ASC workforce Conclusion 26 - The Minister for Care and Mental Health asserted that the chapter on the workforce in the People at the Heart of Care White Paper is the Government’s social care workforce strategy, but the number of further calls for a social care workforce strategy that have been made since the White Paper’s publication clearly indicates that the contents of that chapter do not amount to a strategy, or are not what the sector expected to see from one.