Department of Health and Social Care

It is the Government’s policy to reduce reliance on international recruitment in adult social care and to improve domestic recruitment and retention.

The Government recognises the scale of reforms needed to make the adult social care sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth, and to improve the retention of the domestic workforce. We want it to be regarded as a profession, and for the people who work in care to be respected as professionals. That is why we are introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to the adult social care sector, implementing the first universal career structure, and providing £12 million this year for staff to complete training and qualifications.

The Home Office has estimated an annual reduction of approximately 7,000 main applicants as a result of ending the overseas recruitment of care workers and senior care workers. This can be found in the technical annex of the Immigration White Paper, published 12 May 2025. The analysis in the technical annex will be refined and included within the relevant impact assessments accompanying the rule changes, as appropriate.

In February 2022, care workers became eligible for the Health and Care Visa and were added to the Shortage Occupation List. Senior care workers were added to the list of eligible occupations for the Health and Care Visa in January 2021.

Published data on entry clearance visa grants for the Caring Personal Services occupation code (613) illustrates the broad trend in international recruitment into adult social care in recent years.

This shows that 37,091 Health and Care Worker visas were granted to main applicants under the Caring Personal Services category in 2022. Volumes peaked in 2023, with 107,772 grants, before falling to 9,539 in 2024. This data does not include in-country visa grants.

The Government is committed to improving care for people with neurological conditions, including those with Parkinson’s disease, and ensuring they receive the support that they need. With one in six people suffering from neurological conditions that can severely impact every aspect of their lives, it is vital we ensure that they, along with their families and carers, receive high-quality, compassionate care and access to the latest services and treatments. Having a better understanding of diseases like Parkinson’s is vital in making sure we can provide the right care at the right time.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) commission secondary care neurology services and interface with primary care to ensure there is access to specialist services. Parkinson’s specialist nurses are generally based in secondary and community care settings, depending on where the ICB determines is the best service provision for their locality.

All general practitioners should follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guideline 127 on the recognition and referral of people with suspected neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. Further information on NICE clinical guideline 127 is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng127

Regular support with a Parkinson’s disease nurse specialist is highlighted as a key intervention in NICE guideline 71, Parkinson’s disease in adults, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng71/

Pregnant people will be offered a screening test for Down syndrome between 10 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. If the screening test shows that the chance of the baby having Down syndrome is higher than one in 150, this is called a higher-chance result. People who receive a higher-chance result can decide to:

• not have any further testing;
• have a second screening test called a non-invasive prenatal testing, which is a blood test that can give a more accurate screening result, and can help people to decide whether to have a diagnostic test or not; and
• have a diagnostic test, such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling straight away, which tells people for certain whether or not their baby has Down syndrome, but in rare cases can cause a miscarriage.

We are taking action to improve access to services for people with Down syndrome and to raise awareness and understanding of their needs through implementation of the Down Syndrome Act 2022. The act requires my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to give statutory guidance to the relevant authorities regarding the appropriate actions they should be taking to support the needs of people with Down syndrome.

We are taking forward the development of the statutory guidance as a priority and expect to publish it for public consultation this autumn. The guidance will help to clarify the help and services people with Down syndrome can expect to receive. The draft guidance will set out the process for diagnosing Down syndrome, and the support that health services should provide to a parent carrying a baby with Down syndrome.

The draft guidance will also raise awareness of the needs of children with Down syndrome in relation to health, social care, and education, and will set out practical steps that organisations should take to meet these needs.

NHS Audiology services are locally commissioned, and the responsibility for prioritising primary care audiology lies with local National Health Service commissioners.

NHS England is supporting the integrated care boards to make informed decisions about the provision of audiology services so that they can provide consistent, high quality, and integrated care.

The Government is committed to championing the rights of disabled people, including people with Down syndrome. We are taking action to break down barriers to opportunity for people with Down syndrome and to raise awareness and understanding of their needs through the implementation of the Down Syndrome Act 2022. The act requires my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to give statutory guidance to the relevant authorities regarding the appropriate actions they should be taking to support the needs of people with Down syndrome.

We are taking forward the development of the draft statutory guidance as a priority and expect to publish it for public consultation this autumn. The draft guidance will set out the existing protection from discrimination for disabled people under the Equality Act, which applies to people with Down syndrome.

Under the Health and Care Act 2022, from 1 July 2022, Care Quality Commission registered providers are required to ensure their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. This will help to ensure that staff have the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and informed care. We have published a Code of Practice to guide providers on how to meet this requirement.

The Government will deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, creating a truly modern health service designed to meet the changing needs of our changing population. Moving care from hospitals into the community and putting the building blocks in place to enable this to happen is at the heart of the 10-Year Health Plan.

The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver more care locally, including in rural areas like West Dorset, supporting people to stay healthier including with their mental health.

A neighbourhood mental health model, providing open access to specialist services and holistic support in community locations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is already being piloted in six locations and we plan to go further. There will be 85 new dedicated mental health emergency departments and people will get better access to mental health support directly through the NHS App.

We will also expand mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and new Young Future Hubs will provide additional support for children and young people's mental health.

The Government remains committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% and agrees that timely diagnosis is vital to ensure that people with dementia can access the treatment and support they need.

The Darzi Investigation found that there were too many targets set for the National Health Service, which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or to be held properly accountable.

This is why we have taken a new approach to NHS Planning Guidance this year, reducing the number of national directives from 32 to 18. We will only turn the NHS around by doing things differently. These are the first steps on our journey for long-term reform of the NHS.

NHS Planning Guidance is not an exhaustive list of everything the NHS does, and the absence of a target does not mean it is not an area of focus.

The Government remains committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% and agrees that timely diagnosis is vital to ensure that people with dementia can access the treatment and support they need.

The Darzi Investigation found that there were too many targets set for the National Health Service, which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or to be held properly accountable.

This is why we have taken a new approach to NHS Planning Guidance this year, reducing the number of national directives from 32 to 18. We will only turn the NHS around by doing things differently. These are the first steps on our journey for long-term reform of the NHS.

NHS Planning Guidance is not an exhaustive list of everything the NHS does, and the absence of a target does not mean it is not an area of focus.

The Government wants a society where every person with dementia receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.

The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi in his independent investigation into the National Health Service in England, and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs, including people living with dementia. We are carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan.

As part of this work, we will consider how best to meet the needs of people with dementia, including whether it is appropriate to develop a dementia strategy.

The ADHD taskforce's final report is expected to be published later this year.

For 2025/26, funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework has been increased to £3.073 billion. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.

The Government is clear that it wants to make full use of the skill sets of both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help patients, which is why the Government has laid legislation that enables all pharmacies to use hub and spoke dispensing and will shortly lay legislation to enable the better use of people with mixed skills. This builds on the legislation to allow pharmacies to dispense in original packs and for pharmacy technicians to supply medicines. All of these measures support pharmacists to provide more care in the communities they serve and supports the Government’s ambition to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting close to home.

We have also improved and continue to work on the digital transfer of information between settings, allowing pharmacies to have access to patient records and to record the outcomes of the care they provide, supporting another of our ambitions to move from analogue to digital. The 10 year plan will build on these foundations and set out how we will build a health service fit for the future.

The number of local authority-funded social care users in community care settings has risen by approximately 5% between 2019/20 and 2023/24, according to a 2024 National Health Service publication produced in conjunction with the Department. However, this publication only includes those care users who are funded by their local authority, and does not include those who may fund their own care.

The Department utilises projections of the future demand for care, including community care, published by the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics. These projections inform decisions about funding requirements made at fiscal events such as the Local Government Finance Settlement and the Spending Review.

No such assessment has been made. We know that according to research, reading helps to reduce stress levels and could be beneficial to mental health and well-being.

Ministers have regular discussions with Cabinet Office colleagues about a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, place-making in new towns.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care. They also have responsibility to meet social care needs, and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care.

The Government recognises the scale of reforms needed to make the adult social care sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth, and improve the retention of the domestic workforce. This is why we are introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to the adult social care sector, so that care professionals are recognised and rewarded for the important work they do.

The Department has launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission forms a key part of the Government’s Plan for Change, recognising the importance of adult social care in its own right, as well as its role in supporting the National Health Service.

In England, we continue to fund the locally administered Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes. We have provided an additional £172 million across this and the last financial year to uplift the DFG, which could provide approximately 15,600 home adaptations to give older and disabled people more independence in their homes. This brings the total funding for the DFG to £711 million in 2024/25 and 2025/26.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government share policy responsibility for the DFG. We also work with other Government departments more widely on relevant issues.

We continue to keep all aspects of the DFG under consideration. Recently, we carried out a review of the upper limit for the DFG and are currently considering the findings.

The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs, including people living with dementia. We are carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan.

The independent commission into adult social care, chaired by Baroness Casey, is looking at what fundamental reforms will be needed as we build towards a National Care Service, including what social care should look like, who it should serve, and who should be responsible for its services.

This will be delivered in two parts. The first report will be delivered next year, with work able to begin on implementing its recommendations after publication.

We are also making tangible improvements in the short-term and laying the foundations for a National Care Service that will enable more people to live independently and make social care more productive. This includes funding more home adaptations for disabled and older people, the largest ever uplift to the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit, new standards for care technologies, and legislating for the first Fair Pay Agreement for care workers.

Meanwhile, the Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.

The Government recognises that pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system and is grateful to pharmacy teams across the country, including in North-East Somerset and Hanham, for their hard work, professionalism, and dedication in supporting patients in their communities, and for delivering a wide range of National Health Services.

For 2025/26, funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework has been increased to £3.073 billion. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the NHS, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.

There is also additional funding available, for example for pharmacies delivering Pharmacy First consultations and flu and COVID-19 vaccinations. The Pharmacy Access Scheme provides additional funding to support pharmacies in areas where there are fewer.

This year, we will take forward legislation to enable all pharmacies to benefit from the efficiencies of hub and spoke dispensing and enable greater use of the skill mix in pharmacy teams to free up pharmacists to spend more time with patients.

It is for local commissioners and providers to decide the level of funding required to support the operation of individual mental health facilities, and this information is not collected centrally.

We intend to develop an acquired brain injury (ABI) Action or Delivery Plan, with input from NHS England and other Government departments, to be published in autumn 2025. The 10-Year Health Plan will provide the overarching plan for the future of the National Health Service, and a subsequent ABI Plan would then focus on specific actions and deliverables for ABI against the backdrop of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Community rehabilitation for people with neurological conditions is named as one the integrated care board-funded core components of community health services. Further information on Standardising community health services planning guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/standardising-community-health-services/

The Department launched the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS) in September 2024, providing funding for eligible care staff to complete courses and qualifications. The scheme is backed by up to £12 million this financial year.

We have published a list of over 200 training courses and qualifications which are eligible for funding from the LDSS, including training to enable staff to support care users with specific needs and medical conditions. It also includes qualifications to enhance quality of care more broadly, including the new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate (L2ASCC).

The L2ASCC is an accredited occupational qualification for all eligible non-regulated care staff aged 19 years old and over. It is based on the Care Certificate standards and ensures that those working in the sector have the right skills to provide the right care for individuals who draw on care and support.

While brain injuries are not explicitly mentioned, the L2ASCC and the Care Certificate standards provide a foundation of knowledge and skills necessary to support individuals in the adult social care sector safely and effectively.

We intend to develop an acquired brain injury (ABI) Action or Delivery Plan, with input from NHS England and other Government departments, to be published in autumn 2025. The 10-Year Health Plan will provide the overarching plan for the future of the National Health Service, and a subsequent ABI Plan would then focus on specific actions and deliverables for ABI against the backdrop of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Community rehabilitation for people with neurological conditions is named as one the integrated care board-funded core components of community health services. Further information on Standardising community health services planning guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/standardising-community-health-services/

The Department launched the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS) in September 2024, providing funding for eligible care staff to complete courses and qualifications. The scheme is backed by up to £12 million this financial year.

We have published a list of over 200 training courses and qualifications which are eligible for funding from the LDSS, including training to enable staff to support care users with specific needs and medical conditions. It also includes qualifications to enhance quality of care more broadly, including the new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate (L2ASCC).

The L2ASCC is an accredited occupational qualification for all eligible non-regulated care staff aged 19 years old and over. It is based on the Care Certificate standards and ensures that those working in the sector have the right skills to provide the right care for individuals who draw on care and support.

While brain injuries are not explicitly mentioned, the L2ASCC and the Care Certificate standards provide a foundation of knowledge and skills necessary to support individuals in the adult social care sector safely and effectively.

NHS England is investing in training for independent prescribers, as well as initiatives to support the development and safe practice of designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs) and educational supervisors. A DPP is a healthcare professional with legal independent prescribing rights who will mentor and supervise the pharmacist during the period of learning in practice. This will ensure the National Health Service is ready to support and mentor foundation trainee pharmacists from the 2025/26 academic year, alongside training existing pharmacists that are learning to be independent prescribers.

Reforms to pharmacist education and training will allow for the development of prescriber pharmacists from the point of registration from 2026. This will enable a career-long focus on prescriber services and an associated expansion of the DPP workforce, to support multi-professional teams and the expansion of cross-sector prescribing services.

NHS England has funded 3,000 training places for existing pharmacists to become independent prescribers, and is training 1,000 DPP and educational supervisors to support the training of pharmacist independent prescribers.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help integrated care boards (ICBs) and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism, based on the available evidence. Since publication, NHS England has been supporting systems and services to identify where there are challenges for implementation and how they might overcome these.

The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB has secured £1.8 million in funding to improve the Neurodivergent Pathway across Lancashire and South Cumbria, which the ICB has decided will primarily focus on children and young people (CYP) in the first instance, given the complexities and inconsistency of current CYP pathways. This investment will support frontline services, digital systems, a redesign of clinical pathways, and an increase in direct support available for families and young people. The ICB is working closely with Lancashire County Council and local schools to ensure the offer is joined up. The ICB has also commissioned an all-age online pre- and post-diagnostic support resource.

For the first time, NHS England published management information on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) waits at a national level, on 29 May 2025, as part of its ADHD data improvement plan. It has also released technical guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) to improve the recording of ADHD data, with a view to improving the quality of ADHD waiting time data and to publishing more localised data in future. NHS England has also captured examples from ICBs who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services and is using this information to support systems to tackle ADHD waiting lists and provide support to address people’s needs.

NHS England has established an ADHD taskforce which is bringing together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity, and justice sectors, to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. An interim report was published on 20 June 2025, with the final report expected later in the summer.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including support services for neurodiverse children.

NHS England has established an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) taskforce, bringing together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity and justice sectors to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. An interim report was published on 20 June 2025, with the final report expected later in summer 2025.

The Government is also supporting inclusive environments and earlier intervention for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through the ‘Early Language Support for Every Child’ and ‘Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools’ programmes. The Government will invest in support for pupils with SEND more widely, enabling transformation of the SEND system to make mainstream schools more inclusive and improve outcomes.

NHS England publishes data on the number of patients discharged by discharge pathway, at a trust level, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/discharge-delays/acute-discharge-situation-report/

Pathway 1 is discharges home or to a usual place of residence with new or additional health and/or social care needs. Pathway 3 is discharges to a new residential or nursing home setting, for people who are considered likely to need long-term residential or nursing home care.

The Government continues to increase spending on specialist community perinatal mental health services every year. Integrated care boards spent £212 million in 2024/25, which is an increase of £18 million compared to the £194 million spent in 2023/24. In addition, £58 million was spent on mother and baby units in 2023/24.

Mother and baby units are specialist, in-patient units for some women who experience severe mental health difficulties during pregnancy, or after the birth of their child. These units specialise in treating severe mental conditions, including postpartum psychosis. Care is provided by specialist professionals, including perinatal mental health nurses, nursery nurses, perinatal psychiatrists, psychologists, and occupational therapists.

The Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services, including support for children.

The 2025 Spending Review confirmed that we will fulfil our commitment to provide access to mental health support within schools in England by expanding mental health support teams to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30. This expansion will ensure that up to 900,000 more children and young people will have access to support from trained education mental health practitioners in 2025/26.

Additionally, we are continuing to provide top-up funding of £7 million to the 24 Early Support Hubs to expand their services, and we are also taking part in an ongoing evaluation of these services in 2025/26. This new funding will enable the supported Early Support Hubs to deliver at least 10,000 additional mental health and wellbeing interventions, so that more children and young people are supported.

The following table shows the percentage of male children and young people with a probable disorder, sorted by age group:

Source: Mental Health of Children and Young People in England Survey 2023.

In addition, the following table shows the percentage of male adults with a common mental health condition, sorted by age group:

Source: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/24.

The Government wants a society where every person with dementia receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.

A timely diagnosis is vital to ensuring that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care, and support that can help them to live well and remain independent for as long as possible. To support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rates and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, we have developed a memory service dashboard for management information purposes. The aim is to support commissioners and providers with appropriate data and to enable targeted support where needed.

We have published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool to help simplify best practice for system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool launched in April, and is available at the following link:

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/nccmh/service-design-and-development/dementia-100-pathway-assessment-tool

To prepare for any potential new treatments, NHS England is working closely with regulators to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended treatments as soon as possible.

The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs. It will set out how we support and enable health and social care services to work together better to provide that joined-up care.

Staff networks are collaborative volunteer networks, organised by staff themselves rather than the Department.

The Department had a total of seven staff network events that took place in May 2025. This number represents events led by the networks and does not include any scheduled meetings that are normally restricted to their members. The names of the events are listed as follows:

- Mental Health Awareness week: lived experiences panel event (Women’s Network);

- Tom Riordan in Conversation with the Men’s Health Network (Men’s Health Network);

- Women’s healthcare: ‘Ask the historians’ session (History Network);

- Reflections from clinician and social worker network members on working as mental health professionals (Social Worker Network and Clinicians Network);

- ADHD at work: How it affects us and what helps us (ADHD Staff Network);

- Mental Health Awareness Week – Higher Executive Officer-Senior Executive Officer Network Event (Higher Executive Officer-Senior Executive Officer Network); and

- From Higher Executive Officer to Senior Executive Officer: How to progress across grades (Higher Executive Officer-Senior Executive Officer Network).

In the past year we have invested £37.6 million across health and social care, building on the £338 million invested since 2017. Through our ambitious Cyber Improvement Programme, we are tackling the changing cyber risk head-on, expanding protection and services to better protect the health and care system.

The health and social care supply chain is large and complex. We have a dedicated workstream in the Cyber Improvement Programme that is focused on this particular risk, developing tools and processes to increase cyber assurance and resilience.

Published in May 2025, the cyber security supply chain charter is designed to support suppliers and their customers in reducing the likelihood and impact of a cyber incident. The eight statements contained within the charter are fundamental security measures that should be reasonably expected from suppliers to help secure their organisation.

In September 2024, the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Assessment Framework was implemented into the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) for large National Health Service organisations. This enables them to understand and manage their own cyber and information governance risks, while maintaining the high standards necessary to protect patients. Over 56,000 organisations completed a DSPT assessment for 2023/24. As of July 2024, 82% of NHS trusts, or 172 trusts, had met or exceeded the standard.

72% of adult social care providers are now compliant with the DSPT, and the Government funded Better Security, Better Care programme continues to support care providers to prioritise safety and security when handling the data of those drawing on care.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will help us address the evolving cyber threat to our supply chain. It will strengthen our defences and ensure that essential healthcare services are better protected.

Through the Cyber Operations division in NHS England, we are able to respond to the ever-changing threat landscape and monitor security threats to IT systems and networks. Cyber Operations provide a range of specialist services that help NHS organisations manage cyber risk, and these are delivered through a range of centrally funded products and services.

We work to ensure that patient data and information is stored in systems that are safe and secure. We do this by providing services, guidance, and support to health and care organisations.

I have discussed with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) concerns raised by Members of Parliament about the adverse effects of antidepressant prescribing, and what the MHRA can do to improve communication on the risks of different medicines.

The Department is committed to funding health and care research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England, to ensure that the research we support is inclusive and representative of the populations we serve.

NIHR infrastructure has national coverage across the whole of England. Our infrastructure schemes aim to build research capacity and capability across the country, including in Yorkshire.

The NIHR Research Delivery Network is the main vehicle by which the Department enables clinical research delivery. The Research Delivery Network will adopt a new national funding model for National Health Service support costs and research delivery from 2026/27. This will be a consistent, nationally agreed funding distribution model across all regions of England. The new model will reduce regional variations of health research delivery funding and enable a more transparent, fair, and predictable system of funding that supports the Government’s priorities and the needs of the whole health and care system, including underserved areas and settings.

11 NIHR-funded research infrastructure sites are based within Yorkshire, which is approximately 10%. These span the health and care research pathway, from invention to evaluation and implementation, and include: the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Regional Research Delivery Network; the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres and NIHR Clinical Research Facilities in Leeds and Sheffield; the NIHR Applied Research Collaborative Bradford; the NIHR Sheffield Children’s Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) and the NIHR Bradford and West Yorkshire CRDC; and the NIHR Patient Safety Research Centre in Yorkshire and Bradford.

NIHR research funding opportunities are advertised through either commissioned calls to answer specific research questions, researcher-led workstreams, or themed calls and highlight notices, which provide funding opportunities in Government high-priority areas. Funding committees assess applications that apply to the funding calls and are briefed to consider the equitable distribution of funding.

The Department has not made an estimate of the number of physiotherapists trained in the United Kingdom who have been excluded from National Health Service employment pathways either in the Penrith and Solway constituency or across England.

Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS trusts. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place and with the right skills mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

Specific national capital funding is allocated by the Department for the building of new hospitals through the New Hospital Programme (NHP).

The capital funding provided to build a new hospital varies significantly between each individual hospital. Hospitals are built based on local requirements and vary in the scope of services that they provide and their size.

For the hospitals built as part of the NHP in the last five years, the average amount of capital funding provided by the Department was approximately £270 million per hospital. This average includes a significant range.

In addition to funding delivered through the NHP, in the last five years national capital funding has been provided for several other estates and upgrade schemes outside the scope of the NHP, some of which have delivered major new facilities, but which fall short of the definition of a new hospital.

As set out in the published NHP Plan for Implementation, the cost estimates for the new hospital schemes in Waves 1, 2, and 3 are expected to be higher. We are backing this plan with investment which will increase to up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging approximately £3 billion a year.

The Government supports surrogacy as a part of assisted conception options, to help people who have difficulty starting their own family. To support intended parents and surrogates, the Department has published the guidance Care in surrogacy: guidance for the care of surrogates and intended parents in surrogate births in England and Wales, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/having-a-child-through-surrogacy/care-in-surrogacy-guidance-for-the-care-of-surrogates-and-intended-parents-in-surrogate-births-in-england-and-wales

Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities

It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate.

The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that the public and parliamentarians are informed of the outcomes.

No discussions have been held. Operational decisions on how best to improve services for patients and deliver value for money are taken at a local level by the relevant ambulance trust.

No discussions have been held. Operational decisions on how best to improve services for patients and deliver value for money are taken at a local level by the relevant ambulance trust.

No discussions have been held. Operational decisions on how best to improve services for patients and deliver value for money are taken at a local level by the relevant ambulance trust.

No discussions have been held. Operational decisions on how best to improve services for patients and deliver value for money are taken at a local level by the relevant ambulance trust.