Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 28
28
Deferred
Ensure alignment of Integrated Care Systems reforms with local government and adult social care
Conclusion
The Department for Health and Social Care must ensure that the ongoing reforms and cuts to Integrated Care Systems and Integrated Care Boards are aligned both with wider reorganisation of local government and with necessary reforms to the adult social care sector. (Recommendation, Paragraph 99)
Government Response Summary
The Government did not address aligning health and social care system reforms with local government reorganisation, instead detailing a local audit strategy, the establishment of the Local Audit Office, and a review of local authority accounts.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
79. The Government published a strategy in December 2024 which set out the purpose of local audit including a vision statement and key principles. The Local Audit Office (LAO) will be set up next year as an arm’s-length body (ALB) of MHCLG and will focus exclusively on local audit activities, subject to Royal Assent of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. We have laid statutory instruments to ensure audit regimes for smaller authorities and Major Local Audits are proportionate. We also committed in April 2025 to review the content and format of local authority accounts, which will consider the purposes and users of local authority accounts.