Health Services: Homelessness
(asked on 2nd January 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how will his Department ensure Integrated Care Boards are held accountable for homelessness health outcomes, including hospital discharge into safe accommodation and access to primary care.
People experiencing homelessness are considered as an inclusion health group. Inclusion health groups are a key cohort within the locally identified priority ‘PLUS’ populations in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 framework, in accordance with which, integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for reducing inequalities in health outcomes and improving equitable access to healthcare treatments and services. Further information on NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 framework is avaiable at the following link:
NHS England also published A national framework for NHS – action on inclusion health, which supports ICBs to plan, develop, and improve health services to meet the needs of people in inclusion health groups. This framework is avaiable at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/a-national-framework-for-nhs-action-on-inclusion-health/
Additionally, NICE guideline 214 on Integrated health and social care for people experiencing homelessness supports ICBs to improve homelessness health outcomes, and we continue to explore ways to encourage ICBs to adopt and embed this advice in their commissioning processes. Further information on this advice is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng214
In December 2025, the Government published the National Plan to End Homelessness and Rough Sleeping which commits to ensuring no one eligible for homelessness assistance is discharged to the street after a hospital stay, and which is avaiable at the following link:
The Government will work with the National Health Service and local authorities to improve the implementation of the 2024 guidance Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, and the effective use of existing funding streams to support intermediate care services tailored to the needs of people experiencing homelessness. The guidance Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness is avaiable at the following link: