The terms of reference for the independent commission on adult social care have been set by the government. Please see full terms of reference below, or on GOV.UK.
The Prime Minister has agreed that Baroness Louise Casey will chair an independent commission into adult social care. The commission will be undertaken in two phases with the final phase reporting back by 2028 into 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. 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 (e.g. 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 the Department of Health and Social Care 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 cooperate fully, be transparent, and provide all data and analysis needed to support the commission.