The Prime Minister has agreed that Baroness will chair an independent
commission into adult social care. The commission will be
undertaken in 2 phases with the final phase reporting back by
2028 to the Prime Minister.
Phase 1 (medium term)
The purpose of the first phase of the commission is to set out
the plan for how to implement a national care service, a
government manifesto commitment. This should report in 2026.
The commission should start a national conversation about what
adult social care should deliver for citizens and build consensus
with the public on how best to meet the current and future needs
of the population. It will consider older people's care and
support for working age disabled adults separately, recognising
that these services meet different needs.
The commission should produce tangible, pragmatic recommendations
that can be implemented in a phased way over a decade. It will
aim to make adult social care more productive, preventative and
to give people who draw on care, and their families and carers,
more power in the system.
The commission should seek to understand the current adult social
care landscape and identify a commonly agreed picture of the
problems faced, before making recommendations for medium-term
improvements, building on work being undertaken by the Department
of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The focus
will be to support the delivery of the health mission, in the
context of ongoing reforms relating to the NHS, local government
and the Employment
Rights Bill and Fair Pay Agreement for care workers, and
deliver tangible improvements for the public with regards to
adult social care.
The commission's work on medium-term reform will be a data-driven
deep-dive into the current system. It will focus specifically on
existing funding for local authority adult social care services,
together with NHS funding for services at the interface of health
and care (for example, intermediate care), and whether they are
being best used. It will seek to identify what changes can be
made to funding flows and accountability mechanisms to improve
quality and productivity. It will recommend reforms that help
government to hit the 18-week standard for elective care and
deliver a neighbourhood health service - by reducing unnecessary
hospital admissions and addressing delayed discharges. The
commission's recommendations must remain affordable, operating
within the fiscal constraints of Spending Review settlements for
the remainder of this Parliament.
Phase 2 (long term)
The second phase should then make longer-term recommendations for
the transformation of adult social care, reporting back by 2028.
This should build on the commission's medium-term recommendations
to look at the model of care needed to address demographic
change, how services must be organised to deliver this and
discuss alternative models that could be considered in future to
deliver a fair and affordable adult care system.
Baroness Casey will lead work fully independently
with DHSC as the
lead sponsor department and be based in the Cabinet Office.
The commission must also work closely with relevant other
government departments, including HM Treasury, the Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for
Work and Pensions to discuss findings. All relevant government
departments will co-operate fully, be transparent and provide all
data and analysis needed to support the commission.
