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 adequacy of NHS provision of medical equipment for families with disabled children.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, and responsibility for providing disabled children’s equipment would typically fall to the National Health Service and local authorities.

We expect ICBs to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In 2022 NICE published guidance on Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng213/chapter/Recommendations-on-service-organisation-integration-and-commissioning

The Children and Families Act 2014 requires that education, health, and social care services must work together to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In May 2023, NHS England issued statutory guidance setting out the requirement for ICBs to have an executive lead for SEND, who will lead on supporting the chief executive and the board to ensure the ICB performs its functions effectively in the interests of children and young people with SEND.

Local authorities are responsible for providing social care services for disabled children which can include specialist equipment. The guidance on supporting disabled children and their carers is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6849a7b67cba25f610c7db3f/Working_together_to_safeguard_children_2023_-_statutory_guidance.pdf