Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve health and social care services for people with neurological conditions.

The National Neurosciences Advisory Group (NNAG) is currently developing optimal clinical pathways for people with neurological conditions. The pathways aim to support the improvement of treatment, care and support services and enable better commissioning of neurological services locally and nationally. The Neuroscience Services Transformation Programme will use these pathways to inform its workplan and support integrated care systems to improve outcomes.

The NNAG has publish two toolkits on progressive neurological conditions and epilepsy. The toolkits prioritise faster and more accurate diagnoses, collaborative working between different disciplines and increased availability of neurorehabilitation, reablement, and psychosocial support. NHS England and NHS Improvement plan to recruit a National Clinical Director for Neurology to provide clinical leadership and advice across neurology. The Department has announced the development of a cross-Government strategy on acquired brain injury. The strategy will be informed by a call for evidence inviting views on whether other related neurological conditions should also be included in its scope. We will also set out plans for dementia services in England in a strategy which will be published later this year.