Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of his Department's spending was on (a) community, (b) acute and (c) primary care services in (i) Norfolk and Waveney and (ii) the rest of England by ICB area in the latest year for which statistics are available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2023/24, the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) spent £1,275.5 million on acute services, £240.9 million on community services, and £258.7 million on primary medical services. As a proportion of the Department’s Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit outturn of £182,819 million, as per the Department’s 2023/24 Annual Report, this is equivalent to approximately 0.7% for acute services, approximately 0.1% for community services, and approximately 0.1% for primary medical services. Further information on the Department’s 2023/24 Annual Report is available at the following link:
The following table shows a full breakdown of spend across these three service areas by ICB in 2023/24:
Integrated care board | Acute (millions of pounds) | Community (millions of pounds) | Primary medical services (millions of pounds) |
Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB | 1,115.9 | 190.4 | 217.8 |
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB | 1,026.2 | 183.3 | 220.4 |
Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB | 1,725.5 | 302.7 | 326.0 |
Mid and South East Essex ICB | 1,427.6 | 230.1 | 254.6 |
Norfolk and Waveney ICB | 1,275.5 | 240.9 | 258.7 |
Suffolk and North East Essex ICB | 1,140.2 | 216.0 | 230.4 |
Nort East London ICB | 2,498.7 | 470.5 | 488.0 |
North Central London ICB | 1,891.5 | 362.2 | 358.2 |
North West London ICB | 2,798.4 | 459.6 | 518.9 |
South East London ICB | 2,309.6 | 457.6 | 419.3 |
South West London ICB | 1,928.2 | 280.0 | 344.9 |
Birmingham and Solihull ICB | 1,612.5 | 314.2 | 339.7 |
Coventry and Warwickshire ICB | 1,142.1 | 174.4 | 221.3 |
Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB | 861.5 | 195.9 | 186.8 |
Derby & Derbyshire ICB | 1,268.2 | 191.0 | 252.9 |
Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland ICB | 1,147.1 | 231.6 | 252.9 |
Lincolnshire ICB | 928.0 | 180.6 | 189.4 |
Northamptonshire ICB | 912.8 | 124.0 | 174.3 |
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB | 1,363.0 | 257.3 | 248.3 |
Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB | 612.2 | 126.0 | 115.2 |
Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent ICB | 1,210.5 | 311.9 | 264.3 |
Black Country ICB | 1,610.8 | 277.6 | 258.0 |
Cumbria & North East ICB | 3,768.9 | 724.4 | 743.4 |
Humber, Coast and Vale ICB | 2,019.4 | 358.3 | 388.4 |
Sth Yorkshire ICB | 1,611.8 | 267.4 | 329.0 |
West Yorkshire ICB | 2,776.8 | 536.7 | 571.6 |
Cheshire & Merseyside ICB | 3,404.8 | 648.2 | 637.8 |
Gtr Manchester ICB | 3,738.3 | 665.2 | 729.7 |
Lancashire & Sth Cumbria ICB | 2,374.5 | 399.2 | 411.9 |
Bucks, Oxfordshire & Berks West ICB | 1,831.3 | 392.1 | 383.8 |
Frimley ICB | 753.1 | 152.3 | 178.3 |
Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB | 2,032.0 | 433.0 | 372.4 |
Kent and Medway ICB | 2,228.3 | 460.0 | 407.8 |
Surrey Heartlands ICB | 1,210.2 | 190.4 | 217.0 |
Sussex ICB | 2,045.6 | 381.1 | 415.3 |
Bath & NE Somerset, Swindon & Wiltshire ICB | 1,010.6 | 209.3 | 218.3 |
Bristol, Nth Somerset & South Gloucs ICB | 1,110.5 | 226.2 | 222.5 |
Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly ICB | 651.9 | 166.7 | 144.1 |
Devon ICB | 1,479.2 | 339.5 | 273.3 |
Dorset ICB | 952.3 | 198.9 | 172.1 |
Gloucestershire ICB | 641.1 | 123.1 | 161.4 |
Somerset ICB | 703.2 | 114.6 | 143.1 |
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
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 impact of (a) recent NHS guidance and (b) his Department's health and social care priorities on Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (i) services and (ii) organisations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department values working with the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, in particular to address wider health inequalities. The insights and reach of VCSE organisations are instrumental, particularly in engaging with those who have lived experience and communities facing the greatest barriers to health.
The VCSE sector has been central to discussions about the forthcoming 10 Year Plan, with input from VCSE organisations directly influencing the plan’s content. As part of the 10 Year Health Plan’s national engagement exercise launched on 21 October 2024, we held 17 roundtables, attended by nearly 300 organisations, including VCSE groups, National Health Service trusts, professional bodies, and national charities. We also provided training, materials, and support to organisations to host their own events in communities across England. Over 600 community events took place with over 17,000 participants. The different components combined to create a programme that reached large numbers of people, engaged the widest range of groups and voices among the public, patients, and staff and partner organisations.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to the NHS under the Better Care Fund in each integrated care board area; and where monitoring of that spending is publicly reported.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For 2025/26, approximately £9 billion is committed to the Better Care Fund (BCF). This includes approximately £3.3 billion provided to local authorities through the local authority BCF Grant, as well as the £5.6 billion NHS Minimum Contribution.
2025/26 allocations for the NHS Minimum Contribution by integrated care board and upper tier local authority are available on the NHS England website, at the following link:
Data from the monitoring of BCF spending is also available on the NHS England website, at the following link:
The planned expenditure data for 2025/26 will be published on the same website in due course.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the abolition of NHS England on the Federated Data Platform and Associated Services contract awarded to the consortium led by Palantir Technologies.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by James Mackey, to lead this transformation. As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.
The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job, we will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of access to NHS dental services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are determined to rebuild dentistry for the long term.
We will deliver an additional 700,000 urgent dental appointments; reform the dental contract; and introduce supervised toothbrushing for three- to five-year-olds in the most deprived communities.
We are working with the dental sector, including the British Dental Association, to deliver these shared ambitions.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a long term funding settlement for NHS dentistry.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A budget of £3.8 billion for primary, community, and secondary dentistry has been allocated to the integrated care boards across England for 2024/25, to deliver new initiatives and address the challenges facing National Health Service dentistry. Allocations for 2025/26 will be confirmed shortly, and long-term funding will be considered during phase 2 of the Spending Review, which will set budgets for 2026/27 to 2028/29.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2024 to Question 8935 on Hospices: Children, what his planned timetable is for a decision on the future of that funding.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While 2023/24 marked the final year of the Children’s Hospice Grant in its previous format, in 2024/25, NHS England continued to provide an additional £25 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices, maintaining the level of grant funding from 2023/24. For the first time, this funding was distributed by integrated care boards (ICBs), on behalf of NHS England, rather than being centrally administered as before.
The Department and NHS England are aware that the shift to ICB distributed funding in 2024/25 has not been as smooth a transition as we would have hoped. However, we are working closely with NHS England to resolve any remaining issues with the 2024/25 funding. Furthermore, I am working very closely with NHS England to get the funding arrangements for 2025/26 confirmed as a matter of urgency.
I recently met NHS England, Together for Short Lives, and one of the co-chairs of the Children Who Need Palliative Care All-Party Parliamentary Groups, Lord Balfe, to discuss children’s palliative and end of life care, and this funding stream was discussed at length at that meeting.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
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 tackle shortages of Quetiapine.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department was aware of shortages affecting quetiapine 150 milligrams, 200 milligrams and 300 milligrams. The Department worked closely with industry and others and issued communications to the National Health Service to help ensure patients continued to have access to an alternative treatment until their usual product was back in stock. These shortages have now been resolved and the Serious Shortage Protocols that were in place have now been stood down.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of service provision for (a) deaf and (b) blind people in Norfolk.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act 2010, health and social care organisations are required to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are accessible to disabled people, as well as to everybody else. These changes are called reasonable adjustments.
NHS England has issued guidance for National Health Service commissioners with respect to the Reasonable Adjustments Digital Flag, also known as the Flag. The Flag has been developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments required by an individual across the NHS, wherever the person is treated.
In addition, NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including patients with sight or hearing loss. NHS England has completed its review of the AIS and aims to publish the revised AIS soon.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to monitor the potential impact of the ban on puberty blockers on (a) the mental health and (b) suicide rates among trans patients under the age of 18.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The emergency banning order, restricting the sale or supply of puberty blockers, was introduced by the previous government. The Order enables those who were already on a course of treatment with Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues, before 3 June 2024 from a UK based private or National Health Service provider, to continue to have them supplied. Those who were already on a course of treatment prescribed by an EEA or Switzerland-registered prescriber can legally switch to a UK based prescriber to continue their treatment.
We will continue to monitor the impact of the emergency order, including on mental health and suicide. All child deaths undergo a multi-agency review by a Child Death Overview Panel and that information is reported to the National Child Mortality Database. There is a monthly exercise by NHS officials to check the waiting list against NHS records to identify any deaths.
Professor Louis Appleby, Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, has examined evidence for a large rise in suicides claimed by campaigners. His paper, which was published on 19 July 2024, concluded that the data does not support the claim that there has been a large rise in suicide in young gender dysphoria patients at the Tavistock clinic.
This government has committed to implementing the expert recommendations of the Cass Review to ensure that young people presenting to the NHS with gender dysphoria are receiving appropriate and high-quality care. That is why NHS England and the National Institue of Health and Care Research – the research arm of the department – are working together to commission a study into the potential benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones as a treatment option for children and young people with gender incongruence. The study team is now in place and are finalising their application for funding which will be assessed by an independent scientific review study ahead of the commencement of wider approvals, including ethics, and set up.
Children and young people who are unable to access puberty blockers when they have previously done so are strongly advised to meet with their clinician. We expect clinicians to be working with impacted patients to consider what the best care for them is going forward. We understand some children and young people may be concerned or distressed by the changes. If they are already under the care of a Children and Young People’s mental health provider or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, they can contact their team for advice. If they are not, their general practice team will be able to assess whether further referrals for mental health support are required.
Professor Appleby’s paper is available at the following link: