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 equal access to palliative care.

We know there are inequalities in access to palliative care and end of life care, and the Government is looking at how best to reduce these.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England has published statutory guidance which outlines areas for consideration when commissioning services, which makes reference to improving equity of access and reducing inequity in outcomes and experience. This includes the completion of an Equalities and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment and action plan.

NHS England has also developed a palliative care and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.

Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End of Life Care has been recently extended for a further two years to run to the end of 2028, delivering high-quality policy research to help improve palliative care and end-of-life care, and tackle inequalities.

Through our Modern Service Framework on Palliative Care and End of Life Care, due for publication later this year, we will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end-of-life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality.