Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the national cancer plan will include steps to integrate exercise, nutrition and well-being support into prehabilitation and rehabilitation programmes for all cancer patients, as recommended in The White Rose Cancer Report, published by Yorkshire Cancer Research on 18 June; and what plans they have to adopt the ROSE model to ensure equity in research funding and implementation across the country.

The Government and the National Health Service recognise the importance of physical activity for the prevention and management of long-term health conditions, including cancer.

The National Cancer Plan, due to be published later this year, will set out how experiences and outcomes can be improved for people at every stage of the cancer pathway, including prehabilitation and rehabilitation. The Department acknowledges that more can be done to support people living with and beyond cancer.

The NHS Cancer Programme, through local Cancer Alliances, is working to ensure physical activity is fully integrated across the whole cancer pathway, which includes opportunities within rehabilitation for people who have undergone treatment.

NHS England has highlighted the positive impact of efficient prehabilitation and rehabilitation on cancer outcomes and the potential to lead to cost savings. The ‘PRosPer’ Cancer Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation learning programme, launched in partnership between NHS England and Macmillan Cancer support, aims to support allied health professionals and the wider healthcare workforce in developing their skills in providing personalised care, prehabilitation, and rehabilitation in the cancer pathway.

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments, and to supporting equity of research funding and implementation cross the country.

The Department funded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) supports the principles outlined in the ROSE model, by funding research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research.

The NIHR has made research inclusion a condition of its funding. Applicants to domestic research programmes are required to demonstrate how inclusion is being built into all stages of the research lifecycle and are also required to provide details of how their research contributes towards the NIHR’s mission to reduce health and care inequalities.

The NIHR’s Applied Research Collaborations are regional partnerships which generate high-quality research and evaluation, and work with the system to support the scaling and adoption of effective interventions and models of care nationally, particularly in areas of high disease burden and service demand.