Local Authorities Receive £4m Funding For CQC Assessments

Last week the Department of Health and Social Care announced it will be allocating a £26,730 one-off payment to each Local Authority in England to help support the burden of engaging with the forthcoming Care Quality Commission review and assessment. This follows the changes made under the Health and Care Act 2022 which placed a duty on the Care Quality Commission to review and assess local authorities’ delivery of their functions in relation to adult social care under part 1 of the Care Act 2014 commenced in April 2023. This grant is worth £4.1 million.

In response, Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said:

“It is positive to see the Department of Health and Social Care recognising, and providing support for, the additional pressures that will be borne by the Care Quality Commission’s assessment of Local Authorities. It is disappointing though that no such recognition or support has been afforded to the adult social care sector. We are now just over a month away from the new assessment framework going live for the adult social care sector and yet we remain largely unsighted on what will be expected from care providers and how care providers can ensure they are amply prepared. The Care Quality Commission is still consulting on crucial parts of the new assessment framework, despite announcing the Single Assessment Framework over a year ago. With the go-live date so soon, care providers are quite rightfully concerned. This brings about questions as to whether the regulator needs to assess its own performance.”