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 17 January 2025 to Question 23992 on Primary Health Care: Standards, what steps his Department is taking to help support (a) elderly and (b) digitally-challenged people to use technology to access healthcare.

Digital health tools should be part of a wider offering that includes face-to-face support, with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services. NHS England has successfully run a number of programmes to support patients, carers, and health service staff with their digital skills. These include:

- the NHS App Spoken Word Pilot project, designed to test the efficacy of promoting National Health Service digital health products and services in languages other than English;

- the Digital Health Champions programme, a proof of concept to support citizens who have no or low digital skills with understanding how to access health services online; and

- the Widening Digital Participation programme, aimed to ensure that more people have the digital skills, motivation, and means to access health information and services online.

NHS England has also published a framework for NHS action on digital inclusion and is developing further resources to support practical actions. All digital programmes are actively considering how they can contribute to improvements in healthcare inequalities and digital inclusion.