Recommendation 24

HM Government Deferred

We recognise the importance of providing the right support to unpaid carers. However, the government has no plans to carry out a review into carer’s assessments. As noted above, the Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable high- quality care and support services, including support for unpaid carers. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carers Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer. CQC assessment of local authorities’ delivery of their Care Act responsibilities (including, for example, local authority responsibilities related to undertaking an assessment of a carer’s needs for support) will show how effectively local authorities are supporting unpaid carers. Recognising their needs as distinct from those with care needs and ensuring their wellbeing and independence are looked after. As outlined in Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care, CQC’s duties to assess local authorities will commence from 1 April 2023. In February 2023, we published Care data matters: a roadmap for better data for adult social care. The draft publication sets out our roadmap to transform the way that social care data is collected, shared and used nationally. The roadmap includes a series of questions to the sector, including unpaid carers, to gather their views on the data they need to commission, deliver and oversee care and support. We have already started to engage on this roadmap and will continue to work with stakeholders, including unpaid carers and people drawing on care and support, to co-develop a greater understanding of the sector’s data needs to ensure that we are collecting, holding and using the right data. We plan to publish a final framework by the end of 2023, taking into account the feedback from our work with partners. As outlined in Care data matters: a roadmap for better data for adult social care, the department is taking steps towards implementing a new survey of unpaid carers. As part Government response 33 of this, we will undertake a feasibility study to explore how a survey could be representative of all unpaid carers, how it could capture their different circumstances, experiences and needs, and how it would provide an updated and more accurate estimate of the number of unpaid carers in England. The feasibility study will also consider the future role of the existing Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE). The new client-level data collection from local authorities will also provide more detailed demographic information on unpaid carers that are known to local authorities, with data beginning collection from April 2023. 34 Government response Integration Conclusion 32 and 33 – geographical boundaries, and pooled budgets between NHS bodies and local authorities Conclusion 32 - During this inquiry we heard about a proposal for a national care service, under which health and social care would be delivered by the same organisation. This would be similar to systems in place in Northern Ireland and Wales. This proposal was roundly dismissed by our witnesses. We support the Government’s policy of getting health and care to work better together at a local level, which is far more preferable than a massive reorganisation to create a national care service. Conclusion 33 - We welcome the Joining up Care for People, Places and Populations White Paper and commend the Government for making the integration of health and social care a policy priority. We particularly welcome the Government’s ambitions around shared outcomes, workforce integration, and ensuring every citizen has a shared care record by 2024. However, we are concerned that inconsistent geographical boundaries could result in gaps which could also hinder the successful pooling of budgets.