Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made toward meeting the NHS standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to start consultant-led treatment of non-urgent health conditions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of March 2025, performance against the 18-week standard was at 59.8%, a 2.6 percentage point improvement on March 2024 when it stood at 57.2%. The national referral to treatment waiting list is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/
As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to returning to the 18-week constitutional standard by the end of March 2029. Planning Guidance for 2025/26 set a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum five percentage point improvement on current performance over that period.
As an important first step to delivering on this commitment, we have now exceeded our pledge to deliver an additional 2 million appointments, tests and operations, having delivered 3.6 million more since July. We have reduced the waiting list by more than 200,000, so that patients get the care they need as soon as possible.
Our Elective Reform Plan sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to this standard and includes measures such as widening the opening hours of Community Diagnostic Centres and launching and expanding 17 new surgical hubs so that patients are diagnosed and treated more quickly.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the affordability of weekly care home fees in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that care homes charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.
As well as self-funders sourcing their own care, local authorities also agree fees with care home providers for local authority funded placements. According to Market Sustainability Fund data, in 2023/24, Lancashire paid an average care home fee rate of £707 without nursing, and £738 with nursing. Further information is available at the following link:
We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Commission will deliver recommendations for the transformation of adult social care including how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the cost of care home placements in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that care homes charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.
As well as self-funders sourcing their own care, local authorities also agree fees with care home providers for local authority funded placements. According to Market Sustainability Fund data, in 2023/24, Lancashire paid an average care home fee rate of £707 without nursing, and £738 with nursing. Further information is available at the following link:
We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Commission will deliver recommendations for the transformation of adult social care including how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to the reduce the financial pressures of long-term care for people ineligible for state support.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that private care homes can charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.
We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Commission will deliver recommendations for the transformation of adult social care including how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations of the Centre for Social Justice's report entitled Change the Prescription, published in January 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that for some people, treatment through medication may not be the best option, which is why we are continuing to expand access to alternative forms of treatment through NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes. This demonstrates our commitment to addressing the root causes of mental health issues and to providing support for people to contribute to the economy by remaining in or returning to work.
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we are recruiting 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services to help ease pressure on busy services.
We continue to work with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment, alongside publishing a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade. There are a wide range of factors that will affect this future growth of the NHS mental health workforce, and we will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of eligible families were in receipt of Healthy Start in Blackpool South constituency on 9 June 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
The NHSBSA does not hold data on the number of families receiving Healthy Start and does not currently hold data on the number of people eligible for Healthy Start. The NHSBSA does not hold data on local constituencies. The table below shows the number of people on the digital scheme in the relevant local authorities as of 23 May 2025:
Local authority | Number of people on the digital scheme |
Blackpool | 1,434 |
City of Bristol | 2,778 |
County of Herefordshire | 736 |
Southampton | 1,677 |
Worthing | 348 |
Brighton and Hove | 1,041 |
East Suffolk | 1,129 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve access to paediatric eye care services in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services, including paediatric eye care services, in their areas to meet patient needs.
Free National Health Service sight tests also continue to be available for children under 16 years old, and for those under 19 years old and in full time education. We are not aware of any issues with access to NHS sight testing services.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to include (a) community equipment services and (b) the timely provision of community care equipment in the NHS 10-Year Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 will be at the heart of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Leigh Ingham (Labour - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of (a) Urgent Treatment Centres and (b) Accident and Emergency Departments.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Urgent treatment centres and emergency departments, also known as accident and emergency, provide a different range of services to patients.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for this year will continue the expansion of urgent treatment centres that are co-located with emergency departments. This allows for the effective streaming of patients away from emergency departments, helping to reduce the number of people who spend time there, and overcrowding.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the discontinuation of the NHS and Care Volunteer Responders on other parts of the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS and Care Volunteer Responders (NHSCVR) programme was first established as part of the COVID-19 response and then adapted to respond to other organisational pressures. Most patients were referred into the programme by a health professional for short-term support through the NHSCVR programme. However, a model that worked well in a national crisis is no longer the most cost-effective way of facilitating the important contribution of our much-valued volunteers. Referrers have been informed of the change in service, so that they can source alternative support for their patients if needed, and those that used the Pick up and Deliver service most frequently have been offered support from the NHS England team to identify alternative forms of support.
The NHSCVR programme is just one part of a volunteering system that supports people’s health and care needs, and there are many local voluntary sector organisations that provide other forms of support. Whilst the NHSCVR service is ending, volunteers are being redirected to other National Health Service and voluntary sector organisations to ensure patients continue to be supported.
The NHS Volunteer recruitment portal is already available, with 70 health and care organisations advertising opportunities. As the service grows, every NHS or voluntary organisation in health will be able to post opportunities and recruit volunteers to support their local communities, with a full launch of the service planned for later this year.
In addition, there are over 72,000 volunteers who continue to support NHS trusts directly in over 300 different volunteer roles, which are unaffected by the closure of the NHSCVR.
The decision to close the NHSCVR was based on NHS England’s assessment that the programme was not delivering value for money. The Department will continue to work with NHS England colleagues following the closure of the programme to mitigate risks to national health volunteer resilience.