Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the paper, entitled Myeloid differentiation architecture of leukocyte transcriptome dynamics in perceived social isolation, which links loneliness to a decline in health, published by the US National Academy of Sciences on 23 November 2015; and if he will make a statement.

The Department recognises that loneliness can have a negative impact on a person’s general health. It will continue to take account of the latest research in developing its policies to support local authorities and communities to address loneliness. A recent study by researchers at the University of California and the University of Chicago, published in the journal PNAS in November 2015, adds to the evidence base in this field.

Loneliness is a complex problem and affects people in many different ways. Given the complexity of loneliness and the different ways that people are affected, there is no single solution. Many of the solutions to combatting loneliness lie within local communities and involve local authorities, community organisations, the voluntary sector and individuals, working together. Local authorities prioritise how they spend their funding for social care. In 2014-15 authorities spent around £80 million in tackling social isolation in England[1].

Government has a part to play. It has prioritised prevention through the Care Act 2014.The Department has funded the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop and run the Prevention Library which includes examples of emerging practice to prevent, reduce or delay people’s care and support needs from deteriorating. This includes examples of innovative projects to tackle loneliness. The Department has also supported a ‘digital toolkit’ for local commissioners, which was developed by the Campaign to End Loneliness and is incorporated in its guidance for commissioners. The guidance can be found at:

http://campaigntoendloneliness.org/toolkit/

[1] Personal Social Services: Expenditure and Unit Costs England 2014-15, Final release. Published November 2015. http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB19165/pss-exp-eng-14-15-fin-rep.pdf. The Health and Social Care Information Centre.