Nobody knows when a care provider - big or small, home or residential - might run into the sort of difficulty which could make continuing to run a business questionable.

Everyone knows though that a wise local authority will always have a contingency plan ready to use should such a difficulty turn up in its own patch.

Good news then that pretty well all current social services councils have one and that, with input from the Department of Health, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Association, the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) think tank has put together a toolkit to help regulate, standardise and codify good practice.