Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to encourage NHS bodies and local authorities in each integrated care board area to pool budgets and integrate wheelchair services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services and the development of their local wheelchair service eligibility criteria based on the needs of their local population. ICBs may decide, based on local circumstances, to use a Section 75 agreement to pool wheelchair budgets with local authorities.

The Department is currently reviewing section 75 of the NHS Act 2006, which includes pooling of budgets and resources between National Health Service bodies and local authorities. Following the conclusion of the review, we will consider publishing guidance on pooled and aligned budgets in line with our commitments in the Integration White Paper in due course.

NHS England is taking 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. For example, data for a national wheelchair dataset 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.

NHS England is also developing wheelchair currencies; 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.

NHS England is also publishing a model wheelchair service specification; the 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. Lastly, NHS England is introducing personal wheelchair budgets and legal rights for people; this offers a clear framework to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated.