Care services minister Norman Lamb has voiced his support for a proposal to prevent councils from directly providing adult care services.  

During a Commons debate on the Care Bill, the Conservative MP Anne-Marie Morris suggested splitting the commissioning and provision of social care services, in the same way that the functions are split in the NHS.

She said the fact that councils both commissioned and provided care services gave them “an inherent conflict of interest” that would make it difficult to “ensure true choice and diversity” in the services.

In response, Mr Lamb said: “In many respects I think that [Ms Morris’ suggestion of separating provision and commissioning] is a good thing, because the commissioner can then, without fear or favour, hold those providers to account to ensure a high standard of provision.”

He said that in most areas about 80 per cent of care was already run by outside providers, so direct local authority provision of adult care services was “becoming a minority pursuit”.

Measures in the legislation would give councils a new duty to oversee local social care markets and make sure there is “quality and diversity” in the services available.

Explaining this to MPs, Mr Lamb said: “The duty is about ensuring that the market meets the needs of local people with a choice of quality services - it is not about promoting a market for its own sake.”

Also during the debate, Labour’s shadow care minister Liz Kendall raised concerns about a provision in the bill that would see the Care Quality Commission stripped of some responsibilities for checking the quality of councils’ commissioning.

“We are all in favour of devolution and giving local government more responsibilities, but we must be able to check the quality of a council’s commissioning process,” she said.

Mr Lamb responded that the CQC would still be able to do “themed inspections on specific issues of concern”, adding that he believed it was “important that those powers are exercised in order to hold the commissioning of local government to account.”

The care bill introduces a series of new responsibilities for councils and is set to come into force alongside the introduction of a £72,000 cap on care costs. It reached the committee stage in the Commons today.  

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