Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of applying a currency model to the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative care and end of life care.

A suite of new community service currency models, including for palliative and end of life care in children and adults, have been developed and published in the 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme. Further information on the new community service currency models and the 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/25-26NHSPS-Community-Currency-Guidance.pdf

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-nhs-payment-scheme/

Currency models will help us to understand:

• the needs and complexity of our populations, allowing us to develop services around these needs;
• the resources, care contacts, and costs of supporting patients to meet these needs; and
• quality indicators and outcome measures to understand the effects of the care provided.

Combining these three elements provides an understanding of the overall value, and will support the achievement of the Government’s priorities for palliative care and end of life care.