The Health and Social Care Committee undertook an inquiry into residential care for older people during 2012/13. The terms of reference for the inquiry were as follows:

To examine the provision of residential care in Wales and the ways in which it can meet the current and future needs of older people, including:

• the process by which older people enter residential care and the availability and accessibility of alternative community-based services, including reablement services and domiciliary care;
• the capacity of the residential care sector to meet the demand for services from older people in terms of staffing resources, including the skills mix of staff and their access to training, and the number of places and facilities, and resource levels;
• the quality of residential care services and the experiences of service users and their families; the effectiveness of services at meeting the diversity of need amongst older people; and the management of care home closures;
• the effectiveness of the regulation and inspection arrangements for residential care, including the scope for increased scrutiny of service providers’ financial viability.
• new and emerging models of care provision;
• the balance of public and independent sector provision, and alternative funding, management, and ownership models, such as those offered by the cooperative, mutual sector and third sector, and Registered Social Landlords.

These terms of reference were informed by the consultation conducted by the Committee in autumn 2011 on the scope of the inquiry. The Committee agreed to focus the inquiry on residential care, although nursing care was inevitably touched upon during discussions. The Committee also decided to focus its attention on the provision of services for older people for the purpose of this inquiry.

Evidence from the Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services

The Committee received evidence from the Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services (PDF, 150KB)

Evidence from the public

The Committee held a public consultation to gather evidence on this topic.

The Committee’s report

The Committee reported (PDF, 1MB) in December 2012. A summary of the report (PDF, 267KB) is also available. The Welsh Government responded (PDF, 279KB) in February 2013.

Plenary debate

The Plenary debate on the Committee’s report took place on 20 February 2015.