Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Disabled Children’s Partnerships Left Behind report, what discussions he had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the ring-fenced funding of covid-19 recovery policies for disabled children, young people, and families to allow them to regain lost progress and improve their ability in managing their conditions.

We have had no specific discussions. However, as part of COVID-19 recovery planning we are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health and care services to disabled children. We have provided over £6 billion in un-ringfenced funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including for children’s social care. Since 2019-2020, the Government has provided additional funding for adults’ and children’s social care via the social care grant and is allocated £1.7 billion in 2021-2022. To improve access to healthcare, including for disabled children, we have also invested £6.6 billion from March to September 2021 to ensure health inequalities are tackled in National Health Service recovery plans.