The Care Act - summary of changes

The government has announced that adult social care charging reform is delayed until 2025. Other reforms to social care outlined in the white paper, People at the Heart of Care, are continuing.

The changes that the government is planning are below:

• Reforming the adult social care charging system including the cap on care costs to make the system fairer for everyone and paying providers a fair rate for care
• Supporting sustainable care markets and tackling variability in market shaping and commissioning
• Integrating housing into local health and care strategies and expanding the choice of housing options
• Acknowledging the important role of unpaid carers, while also enabling those who provide unpaid care to be supported to achieve their own life goals
• Recognising the adult social care workforce, with opportunities to develop their careers, supporting them to deliver outstanding quality of care
• An Assurance Framework for adult social care and a duty for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to review and assess local authority performance
• Implementing commitments in the Health and Social Care Data Strategy “Data Saves Lives” including new national data frameworks, gathering provider data regularly and the sharing of data across health and care
• A local supported employment scheme to identify effective ways local authorities can support autistic people and people with learning difficulties into employment
• Greater adoption of technology and widespread digitisation

Note: Information on this page is subject to change pending further announcements from government.