The Department have made no assessment of the potential impact of social care workforce shortages on delayed discharges from hospitals in Essex.

It is important that people are discharged promptly from hospital with the right support, both for their outcomes and to free up beds for other patients.

The Government provides £9 billion through the Better Care Fund to be used jointly by the National Health Service and local authorities towards achieving agreed goals for reducing discharge delays.

English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care.

That is why we are committed to transforming adult social care and supporting adult social care workers, turning the page on decades of low pay and insecurity. That is why we plan to introduce the first ever Fair Pay Agreement in 2028, backed by £500 million of funding to improve pay and conditions for the adult social care workforce.

By law, all health and social care services must have a procedure for dealing efficiently with complaints, and anyone who has seen or experienced poor-quality care has the right to complain to the organisation that provided or paid for the care.

Telecare is not a mandatory service for local authorities, but many choose to provide a telecare service due to its benefits. Some local authorities will also fully or partially fund telecare for some individuals based on a financial assessment. Local authorities are responsible for the contractual terms of telecare services that they provide, therefore in the first instance an individual should consider making a complaint with the relevant local authority.

If an individual is not satisfied with the way a local authority has dealt with their complaint, they may escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who can investigate individual concerns. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is the independent complaints lead for adult social care and investigates complaints from those receiving social care.

The Department is committed to improving integration between health and social care services nationally and locally. Our vision for neighbourhood health will see local government and the National Health Service working more closely together, with a revitalised role for health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) and reform of the Better Care Fund (BCF).

Through the BCF, around £9 billion is being invested in 2025/26 to enable NHS bodies and local authorities to pool budgets and deliver joined-up care. This includes setting shared goals to reduce delayed discharges, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, and support people to live independently at home.

Whilst no specific assessment has been made of the impact of closer NHS-social care integration on reducing hospital discharge delays in Surrey Heath constituency, local HWBs are required to agree plans under the BCF framework to provide timely and coordinated support for people with complex needs. These plans prioritise effective discharge from hospital and recovery in the community.

Starting in the financial year 2026/27, we will reform the BCF to provide a sharper focus on ensuring consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for those services that are essential for integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation and reablement. We will set out further details in due course.

The Department is working closely with NHS England and local authorities to improve social care capacity and reduce delayed discharges.

The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) provided over £1 billion to local authorities for adult social care over 2025/26, based on their areas’ needs, to target increasing fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increasing adult social care workforce recruitment and retention, and reducing waiting times for care.

We are also supporting the digitisation of adult social care, which can strengthen capacity within the social care system through productivity improvements. 80% of registered care providers now have digitised care records, benefitting 89% of people who draw on care. Digital care records can save time spent on administrative tasks, releasing over 20 minutes per care worker, per shift.

The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 identifies reducing delays in hospital discharge as a key priority. Hospitals are expected to eliminate discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by in-hospital issues, to work with local authorities to tackle the longest delays, starting with those over 21 days, and to profile discharges by pathway to support local planning. In addition, the 2025/26 policy framework for the £9 billion Better Care Fund requires the National Health Service and local authorities to jointly agree local goals for reducing discharge delays.

Starting in the financial year 2026/27, we will reform the Better Care Fund. This reform will provide a sharper focus on ensuring consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for those services that are essential for integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation and reablement. We will set out further details in due course.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 December 2025 to Question 95574.

The Department is committed to improving integration between health and social care services nationally and locally. Our vision for Neighbourhood Health will see local government and the National Health Service working more closely together, with a revitalised role for Health and Wellbeing Boards and reform of the Better Care Fund (BCF).

Through the BCF, approximately £9 billion is being invested in 2025/26 to enable NHS bodies and local authorities to pool budgets and deliver joined-up care. This includes setting shared goals to reduce delayed discharges, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, and support people to live independently at home. Dorset has also received additional support from expert advisors working on behalf of NHS England and the Department.

Whilst no specific assessment has been made of the impact of closer NHS-social care integration on reducing hospital discharge delays in West Dorset, local Health and Wellbeing Boards are required to agree plans under the BCF framework to provide timely and coordinated support for people with complex needs. These plans prioritise effective discharge from hospital and recovery in the community.

We do not hold this information centrally.

The Government recognises that delays to hospital discharge impact National Health Service capacity. There are multiple factors contributing to delayed discharges, including processes within hospitals and the availability of appropriate care packages.

The Government has committed approximately £9 billion through the Better Care Fund (BCF) in 2025/26, to support integrated services including intermediate care, which are vital for timely discharge and preventing readmissions. The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 made it a priority for hospitals to tackle discharge delays, starting with those waiting over 21 days after becoming medically fit for discharge.

From 2026/27, the BCF will be reformed to ensure consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for services essential to integrated care, including hospital discharge.

The statutory ‘Hospital discharge and community support guidance’ outlines that health and care systems and providers should collaborate to share information early to support a safe and timely discharge, minimise issues that may disrupt care provision, and ensure necessary home adaptations and equipment are considered, while also requiring local authorities to engage housing services to provide support and advice where needed.

In January, we published a new policy framework for the Better Care Fund, which requires local areas to agree joint plans, developed in collaboration with local housing authorities, that achieve more timely and effective hospital discharge.

Housing adaptations, including those delivered through the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) play a key role in supporting these objectives by funding changes that help people remain well, safe, and independent at home for longer. We have provided an additional £172 million across this and the last financial year to uplift the DFG, which could provide around 15,600 home adaptations to give older and disabled people more independence in their homes. This brings the total funding for the DFG to £711 million in 2024/25 and 2025/26.

Alongside this, local authorities have a statutory duty under various legislations, including the Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014, to ensure provision of community equipment and disability aids in order to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area, which help support independent living at home. This facilitates safe discharge into the community from hospital and prevents avoidable admissions into acute services, such as hospitals or care homes.

The statutory hospital discharge guidance sets out that people leaving hospital, including those who will be moving to a care home, should be supported throughout the discharge process and post discharge. The discharge process should be person-centred, strengths based, and driven by choice, dignity, and respect. Individuals should be supported to make fully informed decisions, in conjunction with their wider family or unpaid carers.

Local areas should have agreed protocols for collaborating with onward care providers regarding the individual’s hospital discharge through care transfer hubs, including agreed pathways for raising and resolving any concerns post-discharge.

In 2025/26, there is £9 billion available through the Better Care Fund. Integrated care boards and local authorities should jointly plan how to use this funding to meet local health and care needs, including after discharge.

The Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26, published by NHS England, has set a priority that hospitals should tackle the delays in patients waiting to be discharged. The plan asks systems to set local performance targets by discharge pathway and eliminate internal discharge delays of more than 48 hours in all settings.

For 2025/26, £9 billion is available through the Better Care Fund to provide services, including those which help reduce delayed discharges. All health and wellbeing boards are required to set goals to reduce discharge delays, which will be used to monitor performance and drive accountability throughout 2025/26.

NHS England publishes data on the number of patients discharged by discharge pathway, at a trust level, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/discharge-delays/acute-discharge-situation-report/

Pathway 1 is discharges home or to a usual place of residence with new or additional health and/or social care needs. Pathway 3 is discharges to a new residential or nursing home setting, for people who are considered likely to need long-term residential or nursing home care.

It is a priority for the Department to tackle delays in the transfer of care, and to ensure that people receive the care that they need.

On 30 January 2025, the Government published a revised policy framework for the £9 billion Better Care Fund. The new BCF Policy Framework for the 2025-2026 financial year supports local areas to use pooled funding in way that delivers greater impact for those receiving integrated health and social care.

Under the new framework, local authorities and National Health Service integrated care boards are accountable for providing timely and joined-up support for people with more complex health and care needs, and for achieving more timely and effective discharge from acute, community, and mental health hospital settings.

The Department does not hold data in the format requested. The data that is recorded relates to the dispensing time, from a prescription arriving in the dispensary to the time the medication is made available for the patient. The following table shows the most recent data available, for April 2025, regarding the average dispensing time for a prescription in the NHS South West region:

The Department and NHS England recognise the need for patients who are ready to go home to be discharged as quickly as possible, both for their benefit and to improve the efficiency of hospitals. Pharmacy-related delays can affect timely hospital discharge for medically fit patients, impacting patient experience, patient flow, and hospital efficiency.

Work is underway nationally and locally to improve discharge processes and reduce avoidable delays. New discharge metrics are supporting providers and systems to identify the causes of delay, including those related to pharmacy, and address them.

The Department and NHS England recognise the need for patients who are ready to go home to be discharged as quickly as possible, both for their benefit and to improve the efficiency of hospitals. Pharmacy-related delays can affect timely hospital discharge for medically fit patients, impacting patient experience, patient flow, and hospital efficiency.

Work is underway nationally and locally to improve discharge processes and reduce avoidable delays. New discharge metrics are supporting providers and systems to identify the causes of delay, including those related to pharmacy, and address them.

It is a priority for the Government to support hospital discharge and ensure that people receive the care that they need.

On 30 January 2025, the Government published the policy framework for the Better Care Fund (BCF) in 2025/26, which took effect on 1 April 2025. The new BCF Policy Framework supports local areas to use pooled funding in a way that reduces delayed discharges and delivers greater impact for those receiving integrated care.

£9 billion of funding is available through the BCF for 2025/26, including £149 million provided to Hertfordshire. This consists of £110 million to the Hertfordshire and West Essex and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Boards, and £39 million to Hertfordshire County Council.

Data collections that monitor the number of patients who are medically fit for discharge but who are not discharged are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/discharge-delays/acute-discharge-situation-report/

Enabling people to be discharged from hospital more quickly and with the right support contributes to speedier recovery and better outcomes. In some instances, this may mean discharging a patient outside of their local area so that they can receive the most appropriate short-term care after discharge. Some hospitals have excellent relationships and processes for cross-county discharges, although we know that in other instances these can cause delays whilst the care transfer hub determine responsibility for funding post discharge care.

The Hospital Discharge and Community Support Guidance sets out that integrated care boards and local authorities should agree local arrangements to ensure that any decisions about the joint funding of care can be made swiftly. These arrangements should follow the ‘Who Pays?’ guidance for services funded by the National Health Service, and reference ‘ordinary residence’ rules for services funded by local authorities, so that there is no adverse effect on timely discharge. Both sets of guidance are available at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidance/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidance

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/who-pays-determining-which-nhs-commissioner-is-responsible-for-commissioning-healthcare-services-and-making-payments-to-providers/

The statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings makes clear that National Health Service mental health trusts should have a clear plan in place for the ongoing care and support that a patient requires after discharge from a mental health inpatient setting. This should cover their pharmacological, psychological, social, cultural, and physical health, their education, housing, and finances, and any other individual needs or wishes.

Alongside this, NHS England is also developing new core standards of care for community mental health services to support the continued improvement of care received by people with serious mental illness who require intensive community treatment and follow-up, but where engagement is a challenge.

As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and shift care from hospitals into the community by improving community and crisis services, NHS England is piloting new models of care in the community for those with the most serious mental illnesses. New mental health centres will open in six neighbourhood areas from this spring, and will provide people and their families with support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if they are in crisis, without needing to book an appointment, as well as providing housing and employment advice to support them to stay well.

The Mental Health Bill, currently before Parliament, also aims to strengthen discharge arrangements for people detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.