Background and Summary
4.The Act contains provisions relating to adult care and support and health.
5.Part 1 of the Act is intended to give effect to the policies requiring primary legislation that were set out in the White Paper Caring for our future: reforming care and support (Cm 8378, July 2012)(1), to implement the changes put forward by the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, chaired by Andrew Dilnot, and to meet the recommendations of the Law Commission in its report on Adult Social Care (Law Com 326, HC 941, May 2011) to consolidate and modernise existing care and support law.
6.Part 2 of the Act also gives effect to elements of the Government’s response to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry that require primary legislation.
7.Part 3 of the Act makes changes to the Trust Special Administration regime. It also takes forward the necessary legislative measures for the proposals outlined in Liberating the NHS: Developing the Healthcare workforce - From Design to Delivery(2), the establishment of Health Education England as a non-departmental public body; and those in relation to health research that were set out in the Government’s Plan for Growth(3), the establishment of the Health Research Authority as a non-departmental public body.
8.Part 4 of the Act establishes a fund for the integration of care and support with health services, to be known as the Better Care Fund and makes provision for additional safeguards around the general dissemination of health and care information.