Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 enable working parents to access healthcare without adversely impacting (a) work and (b) childcare commitments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Core opening hours for general practices (GPs) run from 8:00am to 6:30pm on weekdays, beyond typical school or nursery hours. In addition, primary care networks provide extended access to GP appointments on evenings and Saturdays.
As of 1 October, patients are now able to get in touch with their GP via an online form at any time during core hours to request an appointment or to raise a query, as well as calling or visiting in person. This means working parents can easily schedule convenient appointments without waiting on the phone.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 ensure that online healthcare provision reflects the needs of diverse modern families.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will establish an “online hospital”, NHS Online, which will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will connect patients with clinicians across the country through secure, online appointments accessed through the NHS App.
Before NHS Online goes live, the National Health Service will learn from existing research on patient experience of online care over the last five years and build it into the programme as it develops, with a commitment to patient partnership in design and delivery. Inclusive service design is a key priority to ensure people continue to have greater access, choice, and control over their care.
Digital health tools will be part of a wider offering that includes traditional face-to-face support with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services. Digital inclusion is a key priority for the NHS as it will support the shift from ‘analogue to digital’. It is one of the five national NHS England Health Inequalities Strategic Priorities, and they published a Digital Healthcare Framework which has guided the integrated care boards’ approach.
To improve digital awareness and access, the NHS App team are working with through the National Health Literacy Partnership to provide an NHS App support offer to public libraries in England.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 improve a) awareness of and b) access to online health care services among families and carers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will establish an “online hospital”, NHS Online, which will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will connect patients with clinicians across the country through secure, online appointments accessed through the NHS App.
Before NHS Online goes live, the National Health Service will learn from existing research on patient experience of online care over the last five years and build it into the programme as it develops, with a commitment to patient partnership in design and delivery. Inclusive service design is a key priority to ensure people continue to have greater access, choice, and control over their care.
Digital health tools will be part of a wider offering that includes traditional face-to-face support with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services. Digital inclusion is a key priority for the NHS as it will support the shift from ‘analogue to digital’. It is one of the five national NHS England Health Inequalities Strategic Priorities, and they published a Digital Healthcare Framework which has guided the integrated care boards’ approach.
To improve digital awareness and access, the NHS App team are working with through the National Health Literacy Partnership to provide an NHS App support offer to public libraries in England.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 ensure NHS Online is accessible to people with limited a) digital skills and b) internet access.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will establish an “online hospital”, NHS Online, which will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will connect patients with clinicians across the country through secure, online appointments accessed through the NHS App.
Before NHS Online goes live, the National Health Service will learn from existing research on patient experience of online care over the last five years and build it into the programme as it develops, with a commitment to patient partnership in design and delivery. Inclusive service design is a key priority to ensure people continue to have greater access, choice, and control over their care.
Digital health tools will be part of a wider offering that includes traditional face-to-face support with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services. Digital inclusion is a key priority for the NHS as it will support the shift from ‘analogue to digital’. It is one of the five national NHS England Health Inequalities Strategic Priorities, and they published a Digital Healthcare Framework which has guided the integrated care boards’ approach.
To improve digital awareness and access, the NHS App team are working with through the National Health Literacy Partnership to provide an NHS App support offer to public libraries in England.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what policy he has on match funding raised by charity fundraisers for capital projects that will exclusively benefit the the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is supportive of the National Health Service working with the charities sector to identify opportunities for philanthropic donations alongside match funding. We are aware of several successful examples of infrastructure projects either part or majority funded through such partnerships, including investment at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Moorfield Eye Hospital.
Ultimately, it is for local NHS organisations and trusts to identify and agree these arrangements with charitable partners.
More broadly, as set out in the 10-Year Health Plan we are implementing several national reforms to the capital regime that should ultimately support the NHS’ ability to work effectively with charitable partners, including on options for securing match funding for projects. These include providing multi-year capital allocations, extending to 10 years of funding certainty for NHS maintenance budgets, and expanding capital flexibilities and autonomy for high-performing providers and integrated care boards. These reforms should enable systems to better plan longer term pipelines of investment, better facilitating and enabling philanthropic and charitable contributions.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 use digital technology to help improve access to primary care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are shifting from analogue to digital with a transformed NHS App that will become the digital front door to the NHS. For the first time more people are contacting their GP online than by phone, and NHS App users have increased by 33% since last year.Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish (a) the guidance (i) his Department and (ii) NHS England are providing to Trusts within (A) Category 3 and (B) Category 4 of the league tables of NHS trusts in England, published on 9 September 2025 and (b) the timetable for performance improvement.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The league table ‘segments’, or performance categories, published on 9 September 2025 are based on National Health Service trusts’ performance against the metrics and methodology in the NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26. NHS England published this framework on their website on 26 June 2025, and it is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-oversight-framework-2025-26/
NHS England uses the segmentation scores, alongside wider information, to inform oversight and improvement activities. Trusts in segments 3 and 4 will receive targeted support to address their most challenged performance areas, which may include, for example, urgent and emergency care, outpatients, mental health, finance, or maternity.
NHS providers who have low performance, and which are therefore in segment 4, and low capability will be escalated to segment 5, where they will receive the most intensive support through the Recovery Support Programme (RSP). The RSP will soon be replaced by the National Provider Improvement Programme, focusing on determining whether the most challenged have the necessary conditions in place to deliver sustainable improvement and ensuring support is in place as needed.
There is no national improvement timetable. Improvement plans will be different from trust to trust depending on their particular challenges and local circumstances.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many lower-layer super output areas are within Telford constituency; how those areas are ranked by top (a) 1%, (b) 5% and (c) 10% in the index of multiple deprivation; and what impact that data has on the allocation of funding by his Department.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data published on the House of Commons Library shows that there are 61 lower-layer super output areas (LSOAs) within the Telford constituency. 15 LSOA areas are ranked in the top 10% of the most deprived areas in England. The number of LSOA areas that are in the top 1% or top 5% are not reported. The data is available at the following link:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-indices-of-deprivation/
The National Health Service resource allocation formula is intended to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, taking account of NHS England’s duty to have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities. The formula takes account of factors such as demography, morbidity, deprivation, and the unavoidable cost of providing services in different areas. In addition, a further adjustment to address health inequalities and unmet needs increases the resources directed to deprived areas. The Index of Multiple Deprivation is one of the indicators used in the formula.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of new born babies were admitted to neonatal care in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is available from Imperial College London’s National Neonatal Research Database, at the following link:
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average length of stay for a baby in neonatal care was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is available from Imperial College London’s National Neonatal Research Database, at the following link: