Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the quality of locally led provision of NHS wheelchair services throughout the country.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services and the development of their local wheelchair service eligibility criteria based on the needs of their local population. NHS England is responsible for funding allocations to ICBs and supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. The Government does not currently have any plans to review current investment levels in wheelchair services.

The Government has not made an assessment of the quality of locally led provision of wheelchair services, however NHS England is taking a number of steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment. These steps include, firstly, establishing a national wheelchair dataset, whereby data has been collected quarterly from clinical commissioning groups, now ICBs, since July 2015 and supports the drive for improvements in wheelchair services. This data looks at waiting times at the various stages across the pathway to enable targeted action if improvement is required.

The second step revolves around developing wheelchair currencies, whereby the currency model offers a structured way for providers, commissioners and systems to understand the complexity of a patient population and support commissioning conversations using the currencies as an evidence base. The model also supports benchmarking across localities and on a national basis.

Additionally, NHS England is publishing a model wheelchair service specification. This specification sets out NHS England’s ambition for excellent wheelchair services and is a tool to enable ICBs to review and improve their wheelchair services. Finally, NHS England is introducing personal wheelchair budgets and legal rights for people, which offers a clear framework to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated.