Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of regional variations in the proportion of NHS Continuing Healthcare applications that are approved; and what steps he is taking to ensure consistency in decision making across Integrated Care Boards.

The Department works closely with NHS England to monitor levels of regional variation in eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). This includes NHS England implementing an operational assurance regime across regions which promotes accurate assessment, equal access, standardisation, and consistency within CHC funding.

This assurance regime has a specific focus on reducing unwarranted variation in CHC across the country. To support this further during 2025/26, NHS England has increased their regional assurance meetings from every three months to every two months.

To support improved patient experience in relation to CHC, the NHS Performance and Assessment Framework for 2025/26 also includes an assurance standard for Integrated Care Boards to monitor the percentage of Standard CHC referrals completed within 28 days.