Thank you, Sam, very much, for that question—a very important question. We do intend local authorities to continue to deliver and commission social care services, because it's absolutely crucial that these services are as close to the public and close to the local area as possible. So, we certainly don't see any diminishing of the role of local authorities in this field.

We think that we need a local, regional and national service, and we need more effective regional provision and we need a national framework that does not diminish the delivery at a local level. I feel very strongly that the provision of social care should be linked very strongly with local services, because they're the people who know best, and I feel that it's possible to build up the community through the services that you have locally, and the knowledge of the local community is absolutely crucial. So, we are determined that the delivery of local services and the local knowledge will not be diminished by these proposals, but we are planning for a national approach that will make it simpler and will be able to provide parameters that will prevent some of the confusion that exists at the moment. It's a very fragile sector and we want to strengthen it, but we want to strengthen local accountability as well.