Recommendation 14

This Committee has also challenged the Department before over not delivering on its overarching responsibilities towards the care market, and having no credible plans to ensure the sector was sustainably funded.38 We note it was not until June 2020 that the Department appointed a director general for adult social care to lead on its social care policies, four years after the previous director general left the post.39 The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government told us that it had provided £3.2 billion additional funding to local government with instructions to prioritise social care and, of the £1.25 billion spent so far, £500 million had gone on social care.40 On 15 May 2020 the 29 Committee of Public Accounts, Interface between health and adult social care, Sixty-Third Report of Session 2017–19, HC 1376, 19 October 2018 30 RSC0001 Care England submission 31 C&AG’s Report, foreword 32 Q 121 33 RSC0002 Local Government Association submission; RSC0005 Association of Anaesthetists submission 34 Qq 11–12, 27, 38 35 Q 42 36 Qq 11–12 37 Qq 31–38, 40; C&AG’s Report, para 13 38 Committee of Public Accounts, The adult social care workforce in England, Thirty-Eighth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 690, 9 May 2018 39 HSJ article: Government’s social care directorate restored after four-year gap, 15 June 40 Qq 28–29 Readying the NHS and social care for the COVID-19 peak 13 government also announced a £600 million Infection Control Fund for local government, to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in care homes in England, which was in addition to the £3.2 billion.41 Given reports of increased risk of provider failure and calls from the Local Government Association and NHS Providers to secure a sustainable future for social care, we pressed the Department on whether it would have to rescue any failing providers in the weeks ahead. It told us it was focusing on ensuring the continued provision of services to individuals but was looking closely at the evidence base to understa