Select committee: Public Services Committee
Recommendation 29
1st Report - A critical juncture for public services: lessons from COVID-19
Published 13 Nov 2020
Paragraph 141
Public Services Committee Public services: lessons from coronavirus All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government should set out in the white paper on English devolution how the tension between the NHS as a national service provider and the aims of the Government’s devolution agenda—which seeks to give more autonomy to local areas—may be reconciled. It should explain how the NHS will work with local authorities to ensure that the strategy for service integration laid out in the NHS Long-Term Plan aligns with place-based plans for integration in local areas.
From: Public Services Committee, 1st Report - A critical juncture for public services: lessons from COVID-19, paragraph 141, 13 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 25 February 2021 (deadline 13 January 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out existing programmes and funding across health, education, children's services, social care and data-sharing, and gives dated commitments on only some recommendations, with others deferred 'in due course' or to a later decision.
- On the Outsourcing Playbook, the Cabinet Office "agrees with the Committee’s recommendation" and plans to launch the updated version in 2021.
- On adult social care reform, the government says it "will bring forward proposals this year", and notes that "a range of options are being considered".
- On the Prevention Green Paper and the successor to Public Health England, the government will "update on the response to the Prevention Green Paper in due course", and the National Institute for Health Protection's accountability arrangements will be published when it is formally established in Spring 2021.
- On the recommendations for a cross-agency strategy for vulnerable children, the government "notes the Committee’s comments" on the Troubled Families Programme and says it is "committed to extending it", with up to £165 million in 2021-22.