6
Recommendation
Twenty-Second Report - Reforming adult …
Rejected
The Department faces significant challenges in delivering its ‘vision’ for adult social care reform, and Parliament and the sector must be able to hold it to account for its progress. It is worrying that the Department has no roadmap for achieving its 10-year vision for adult social care, or any …
Read more
The Department faces significant challenges in delivering its ‘vision’ for adult social care reform, and Parliament and the sector must be able to hold it to account for its progress. It is worrying that the Department has no roadmap for achieving its 10-year vision for adult social care, or any targets or milestones beyond 2025. Though we agree that some flexibility to adapt as the Department learns has merit, there is currently nothing meaningful in place to demonstrate progress towards targets. With charging reform postponed, system reform scaled back and limited progress from the Department even on its reduced ambition for system reform, we cannot help but be sceptical as to whether the vision is still achievable. The 8 Reforming adult social care in England Department has given us little assurance that charging reform, delayed to October 2025, can be delivered on schedule; work will need to start soon but funding for it will depend on the next spending review. We are encouraged that the Department says it is monitoring local authorities’ capacity to deliver charging reform alongside system reform and other departmental initiatives but somewhat concerned that it is not yet sequencing activity to alleviate pressure. Recommendation 6: The Department should set out a roadmap for delivering its vision, pulling together all its reform activity (system reform and charging reform), and the risks to delivery with key performance indicators and should publish six-monthly updates on progress to time and budget. Reforming adult social care in England 9 1 Funding and delivery structures for adult social care
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation to publish a roadmap with KPIs and six-monthly updates, stating it cannot commit to this approach. It will set out details of the next phase of reform following the next spending review and will consider the value of publishing …
Read full response →
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
Twenty-Second Report - Reforming adult …
Rejected
We challenged the Department on how it was applying lessons from its earlier attempt at charging reform to meet the revised implementation date of October 2025. The Department told us that charging reform was “not a delivery challenge; it was a money challenge”, and that was why it delayed it …
Read more
We challenged the Department on how it was applying lessons from its earlier attempt at charging reform to meet the revised implementation date of October 2025. The Department told us that charging reform was “not a delivery challenge; it was a money challenge”, and that was why it delayed it and redirected the money from charging reform into the system. The Department assured us it had been ready to deliver, and it 58 Q 64 59 Qq 75–78 60 Letter from DHSC to the Committee of Public Accounts, 1 February 2024 61 Qq 66–68 62 Letter from DHSC to the Committee of Public Accounts, 1 February 2024 63 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.2, 3.8 64 C&AG’s Report, para 17, Qq 63 65 Qq 11, 63 66 Q 63 18 Reforming adult social care in England had learned a lot from the six trailblazer local authorities. It told us about the innovative ways that the trailblazers had discovered to get through more care needs assessments, for example, using online digital technology and having different mixes of teams rather than relying on a social worker. We heard that one of the trailblazers made a 40% productivity improvement through those approaches.67 As the NAO’s report pointed out, to achieve the revised timetable, work would need to begin soon yet the funding set aside for charging reform has been diverted elsewhere and the levy to support it dropped.68 When we asked about how it would fund charging reform, the Department told us that the funding and the timetable for the next spending review were questions for the next spending review.69
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the committee's implicit recommendation regarding applying lessons and funding charging reform. It cannot commit to an approach now, deferring details of the next reform phase until after the next spending review, and will only consider publishing regular progress reports.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
Twenty-Second Report - Reforming adult …
Rejected
We asked the Department and DLUHC what they were doing to ensure that local authorities could deliver charging reform alongside system reform, with all the other pressures on them. The Department told us one of the reasons for delaying charging reform had been local authority capacity given other pressures on …
Read more
We asked the Department and DLUHC what they were doing to ensure that local authorities could deliver charging reform alongside system reform, with all the other pressures on them. The Department told us one of the reasons for delaying charging reform had been local authority capacity given other pressures on them and that, before giving a new chunk of complicated work alongside all the other things they had to do, it would want to be sure they could do it well.70 DLUHC told us that it was working closely with local authorities to ensure they had capacity do all the critical things going through them, including reforms to children’s services which it said was also a major system reform. We heard that all these programmes were at different stages of development and that DLUHC was working with local authorities to make progress on things like quality and productivity but was not currently sequencing reforms with local authorities to address local pressures and priorities.71 67 Q 79 68 C&AG’s Report, para 3.14 69 Q 80 70 Q 82 71 Qq 82, 95–97 Reforming adult social care in England 19
Show less
Government response AI summary
The government disagrees with the committee’s implied recommendation regarding sequencing reforms for local authorities. It states it cannot commit to the approach now, deferring details of the next reform phase until after the next spending review, and will only consider publishing regular progress reports.
Read full response →
HM Treasury