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 Partnership and Scope’s October 2021 report, The Gap Widens, what plans his Department has to use the £5.9 billion NHS covid recovery funding announced at the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, to tackle the £1.5 billion funding gap in disabled children’s health services.

On 6 September, the Government announced plans to spend over £8 billion over the Spending Review period between 2022/23 to 2024/25 for a programme to assist the National Health Service to provide elective care delayed by the pandemic.

We have also announced an additional £5.4 billion to support the COVID-19 response over the next six months, bringing the total Government support for health services in response to COVID-19 to over £34 billion in 2021/22. This includes £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog and reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children.