PAC quizzes senior DHSC officials on adult social care reforms
The Public Accounts Committee will quiz senior officials from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on adult social care form at 1:30pm on Wednesday 24 January.
Meeting details
The Government promised to “fix the crisis in social care” in 2019. In June 2021, the Committee’s ‘Adult social care markets’ report found that the DHSC had poor oversight of the system and seemed complacent about the risk of market failure.
The report called for a long-term funding plan and a workforce strategy. In December of that year, the DHSC published a 10-year vision for adult social care reform.
With rising inflation exacerbating existing pressures on the system, the DHSC reduced its short-term plans for system reform and associated funding to £729m, compared to the £1.74bn agreed in December 2021.
Two years later, a National Audit Office (NAO) report highlights that the DHSC has delayed or scaled back some of its reforms and has a long way to go to deliver its ambitions.
Based on the NAO report, the Committee will take evidence from senior DHSC officials on subjects including:
- Plans to coordinate and manage risk to the reforms;
- How to tackle low pay and support career development in the workforce;
- Certainty of funding;
- Revised plans for system reform published in April 2023.