Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has held on the 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme with the (a) voluntary and (b) community sector.

The NHS Payment Scheme is a policy of NHS England. NHS England is following standard procedure in its consultation on the NHS Payment Scheme. While the consultation’s objection thresholds apply only to commissioners and providers of National Health Service-funded services, the consultation accepts responses from any interested parties and members of the general public.

On publication, all providers and commissioners affected by the proposals were sent details of the consultation and were asked to respond.

An email to highlight the consultation was also sent to over 4,300 people, including from representative bodies, charities, and other voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, who had registered for updates about the payment system or had joined the payment system support, FutureNHS. A reminder was also sent out a week before the consultation closed.

NHS England also promoted the consultation alongside the consultation on the NHS Standard Contract, contacting approximately 2,000 people from NHS organisations, local authorities, voluntary sector organisations, and other interested parties. During the consultation period, NHS England also met with ADHD UK to discuss the proposals.

Of the responses that were received regarding the consultation, 16 were from representative bodies, including health charities and royal colleges.