We asked about the risk of profiteering and how the Department was ensuring that the money it was putting into the system was going to the right places. The Department explained that was mainly down to the quality of commissioning and that, as CQC was now inspecting local authority commissioning, it would be getting an overview of how good that commissioning is. DLUHC told us that local authorities were responsible for ensuring that their local markets are working functionally and that they can continue to commission care. The Department pointed out that, as shown in the NAO’s report, provider profits were falling, and said it did not therefore consider there to be a particular risk of providers “creaming off profits”. It said that profits in social care were to be made more on the self-funder side than on local government funded care.24