Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase access to care in the community in the West Midlands.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service. The Neighbourhood Health Service will embody our new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can, digitally by default, in a person’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, and only in a hospital if necessary.

The Neighbourhood Health Service will mean people are treated and cared for closer to their home by new teams of health professionals. It will rebalance our health system so that it fits around peoples’ lives, not the other way round. We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations.

To support this agenda, we have launched wave 1 of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP) across 43 places in England, including parts of the West Midlands such as: Walsall; Coventry; Shropshire; East Birmingham; Solihull; and Herefordshire.

The NNHIP will support systems across the country by driving innovation and integration at a local level, to accelerate improvements in outcomes, satisfaction, and experiences for people by ensuring that care is more joined-up, accessible, and responsive to community needs.