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 that patients who require rehabilitative physiotherapy have access to NHS services.

Integrated care boards across England are responsible for managing the National Health Service budget and arranging the majority of NHS healthcare services to meet the healthcare needs of their respective populations. This includes the provision of some physiotherapy services.

We know people are waiting too long for community health services. The Medium-Term Planning Framework sets a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits. By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services more into line with targets for elective care.

To support the shift to neighbourhood health, NHS England’s ‘Standardising community health services’ guidance asks systems to increase the capacity in community health services and work to standardise core community health services provision. The recently published 'Standardising community health services - core component descriptions’ guidance clearly defines the core component of community services to help reduce variation and support consistent commissioning, including for physiotherapy.

This Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.