Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2019 to Question 213320, when areas with high health inequalities will receive an increase in funding; and whether that increase in funding will require a change to the funding formula for General Practice.

NHS England set clinical commissioning group (CCG) funding allocations. This year, NHS England’s independent advisory committee, the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, recommended a new approach to health inequalities which was reflected in the CCG allocations published on 10 January 2019. The 2019/20 component of the increase for areas with high health inequalities, which is already included in the aforementioned CCG allocations, will be available from the start of the financial year.

The core allocations formula for primary medical care accounts for greater needs for healthcare in more deprived parts of England, and a further adjustment reflects NHS England’s objectives to tackle health inequalities and address unmet need for health services. This adjustment, which targets 15% of the total primary medical care allocation, is based on data on premature mortality at a small area level, aggregated up to CCG level, and thus takes account of inequalities within as well as between CCGs.

In addition, the new five-year framework for general practitioner contract reform sets out the requirements for a Directed Enhanced Service (DES) for Primary Care Networks, which includes addressing Inequalities as one of seven national service specifications. The timetable for introducing the Network Contract DES is set out in section 4.15 of the five-year framework. Details specifically relating to the Inequalities service specification can be found in section 6.32 and 6.33. The framework is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gp-contract-2019.pdf