Community care

MSPs say that the Scottish Government has so far been unable to articulate and communicate a model of how the proposed new National Care Service would operate

Parliamentary committee calls for more clarity on plans to develop the service before legislation can progress further

Welsh Government launches consultation on raising weekly maximum charge for adult non-residential care and support

Views sought on increasing current maximum charge of £100 to help address the increasing financial pressures on local authorities

Scotland’s First Minister appoints Neil Gray as new Health and Social Care Secretary

Appointment part of a mini-reshuffle following Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson tendering his resignation yesterday

Housing Ombudsman and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman launch aligned complaint handling codes

Ombudsman issues Adverse Findings Notice against care provider after it refused to refund family despite investigation finding serious issues with the care their relative recieved

Provider's suggestion that putting things right for the family would negatively impact the standards of care it provides to other residents is firmly rejected

Government to provide local authorities with additional £500 million funding for social care in 2024/2025

New money provided in response to 'unprecedented challenges' faced by local authorities, including high inflation and legacy of Covid-19

Amerdeep Somal appointed as the new Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

DLUHC confirms that Ms Somal will take up the post from 1 February 2024, replacing Paul Najsarek

Public Accounts Committee launches call for evidence on reforming adult social care in England

Views sought on issues including the risks that will prevent reform, funding and the government's revised plans for system change

Independent Living Fund to reopen to new applicants in Scotland

Scottish Government confirms that additional funding of £9 million will support 1,000 new applicants

Government proposes increasing social care grant to £4.5 billion in 2024/2025

However, DLUHC advises that this includes almost £2 billion saved from delaying the rollout of adult social care charging reform from October 2023

Right to receive visits and to be accompanied in care homes and other care settings in England added as a ‘fundamental standard’ regulated by CQC

New statutory instrument

Ombudsman finds local authority at fault for services provided by nursing home that failed to take account of resident’s cultural needs

Council's inadequate assessment of cultural care needs also found to have played a part in causing significant hair, diet and skin problems for the resident

Victoria Atkins appointed as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Replacing Steve Barclay, MP for Louth and Horncastle moves to the new role from her previous post as Financial Secretary to the Treasury

More than £1 billion of the £1.74 billion the government committed to the reform of adult social care has been diverted to other care priorities

New report from NAO finds that government 'has much to do and must manage significant risks' if it is to achieve 10-year plan for reform set out in 2021 White Paper

Annual assessment of public services concludes that English councils are rationing adult social care through ‘subjective’ eligibility judgments

Institute for Government's 2023 Performance Tracker also highlights government's failure to increase the means tests for publicly funded care by inflation for more than a decade

Holyrood Committee launches inquiry into the Scottish direct payments system for community care services

MSPs call for views on whether the Act that introduced the system in April 2014 is producing the expected outcomes

Ombudsman recommends that council recalculates care home resident’s financial assessment after incorrectly applying notional capital rules

Decision follows complaint that the resident was treated as having capital that she had given away despite the council accepting that the money had not been gifted in order to avoid paying more care home fees