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 all people with terminal diagnoses have access to palliative care services.

Palliative and end of life care is commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England has actively increased its support to local commissioners to improve the accessibility, quality and sustainability of palliative and end of life care for all. This includes statutory guidance for integrated care boards, service specifications for adults and children and young people and further commissioning specific resources via the FutureNHS Collaborative Platform.

In addition, NHS England funded the establishment of seven Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Networks to work with integrated care systems to progress and implement sustainable commissioning models for equitable, high-quality services.

The Department has had recent discussions with NHS England regarding the importance of transparency of local ICB commissioning and funding of palliative and end of life care.