Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide additional funding to NHS Continuing Care in the context of increased costs of care and residential homes.

NHS England allocates funding to integrated care boards to meet the costs of providing healthcare, including NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). For 2022/23, additional funding has been issued to local systems for a range of cost pressures, including NHS CHC.

NHS CHC is a package of ongoing National Health Service-funded care for adults with the highest levels of complex, intense or unpredictable needs, who have been assessed as having a ‘primary health need’. The Department is responsible for the policy and legislation for NHS CHC, which includes the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care. This statutory guidance sets out the process for determining eligibility for CHC. The application of this guidance is intended to ensure that those individuals eligible to receive CHC are identified, assessed and receive an appropriate package of care.