Disability: Health Services

(asked on 18th February 2022) - View Source

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 every disabled child can access the therapies and health services they need.


Answered by
Gillian Keegan Portrait
Gillian Keegan
Secretary of State for Education
This question was answered on 24th February 2022

The ‘2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance’, published in December 2021, includes a requirement for local health systems in England to agree a plan for reducing community service waiting lists. The aim is to prioritise patients on waiting lists and consider transforming service pathways to improve effectiveness and productivity. NHS England and NHS Improvement published the ‘Community services prioritisation framework’ on 11 January 2022. This sets an expectation that community health services which have been delayed or paused as a result of COVID-19, including therapy services for children and young people, should resume from 1 March 2022.

There are no legal referral targets for disabled children’s health services. The NHS Constitution for England provides that patients have the right to access certain services, which may include health services for disabled children, within maximum waiting times, or for the National Health Service to offer suitable alternatives if this is not possible.

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