Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of progress on the Cancer Strategy target of saving an additional 5,000 lives from cancer per year by 2014-15.

Cancer survival and mortality rates continue to improve although it is too early to assess progress against our ambition to save an additional 5,000 lives per year by 2014-15, to halve the gap between the survival estimates in England and those in the best countries in Europe. Proxy measures are being developed to enable an assessment of progress in a more timely manner, particularly in terms of the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages one and two and cancers diagnosed through emergency routes.

The National Health Service and Public Health Outcomes Framework indicators and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Outcomes Indicator Set are starting to enable us to assess progress, at national and local level. For example, data on one-year survival from all cancers and one-year survival from breast, lung and colorectal cancer were published as part of the CCG outcomes indicator set for the first time on 19 June 2014. NHS England is continuing to monitor the progress of the NHS in reducing mortality from cancer in line with the NHS Outcomes Framework, and from 2014-15 there will be a range of new NHS Outcomes Framework indicators reflecting different stages of diagnosis which will provide a good proxy measure in future on progress in delivering earlier stage of diagnosis of cancer.

The Mandate for the NHS for 2014-15 sets out an ambition for England to become one of the most successful countries in Europe at preventing premature deaths. Tackling premature deaths from cancer will contribute to this. A range of work at national and local level is aimed at improving cancer survival. For example, results from the first national “Be Clear on Cancer” lung cancer campaign in 2012 showed that around 700 extra patients were diagnosed with lung cancer compared to the previous year. Approximately 400 of these patients had their lung cancer diagnosed at an early stage, with around 300 more patients having surgery, giving them a better chance of survival.

NHS England took over responsibility for the annual national cancer patient experience survey from April 2013. The survey results are used by a range of stakeholders to identify practices that lead to positive experience for patients, and promote improvements.

NHS England is working with NHS Improving Quality and other partners to develop more effective ways of using the survey results within the NHS, for example, working with successful and struggling organisations to identify and spread best practice.

CCGs are currently in the process of finalising measurable levels of ambition to improve patient experience and will be holding providers to account. These are based on NHS England's new measure for poor inpatient experience which includes whether patients are treated with dignity and respect.

Compassion in Practice, the three year vision and strategy for nursing, midwifery and care staff, is also seeking to increase feedback from vulnerable and disadvantaged patient groups, who can have poorer experiences of care.

In April 2014, NHS England introduced the staff friends and family test for all NHS Trusts in England, as research shows the strong link between levels of staff engagement and quality of patient experience.