Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to ensure that NHS organisations and contracted wheelchair service providers are subject to more rigorous, mandatory regulation.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
NHS England also introduced personal wheelchair budgets, including legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
The Medium-Term Planning Framework sets a requirement for all providers and ICBs to actively manage long waits for community health services reducing the proportion of all waits over 18 weeks. This will be monitored via the NHS’s usual regional and national assurance processes.
The Community Health Services Situation Report, which will be used to monitor ICB performance against waiting time targets in 2026/27, currently monitors waiting times for both children and young people, and adult waiting times under the ‘Wheelchair, Orthotics, Prosthetics and Equipment’ line. These targets will guide systems to reduce the longest waits, and improvement initiatives to meet these targets may affect waits that are over 18-weeks and 52-weeks.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make the recently developed service specification guidelines for wheelchair services mandatory across England.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
NHS England also introduced personal wheelchair budgets, including legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
The Medium-Term Planning Framework sets a requirement for all providers and ICBs to actively manage long waits for community health services reducing the proportion of all waits over 18 weeks. This will be monitored via the NHS’s usual regional and national assurance processes.
The Community Health Services Situation Report, which will be used to monitor ICB performance against waiting time targets in 2026/27, currently monitors waiting times for both children and young people, and adult waiting times under the ‘Wheelchair, Orthotics, Prosthetics and Equipment’ line. These targets will guide systems to reduce the longest waits, and improvement initiatives to meet these targets may affect waits that are over 18-weeks and 52-weeks.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on nursing staff working in the adult social care sector of proposals to change the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.
As part of this consultation, we are seeking views on the potential impact of the proposed changes on different groups, including those working in sectors such as social care. Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following that consultation.
The final proposals will also be subject to full economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Wetherby and Easingwold)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to implement a sustainable funding model for independent adult hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have provided a £125 million capital funding boost for eligible adult, and children and young people’s, hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. We will consider contracting and commissioning arrangements as part of our MSF. We recognise that there is currently a mix of contracting models in the hospice sector. By supporting integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission more strategically, we can move away from grant and block contract models. In the long term, this will aid sustainability and help hospices’ ability to plan ahead.
Officials are working closely with a number of stakeholders from the hospice sector in the development of the MSF.
Additionally, the recently published Medium-Term Planning Guidance and the Model ICB Blueprint set out that ICBs should act as strategic commissioners with core functions including: understanding current and projected total service utilisation and costs; identifying underserved communities; assessing quality, performance, and productivity of existing provision; and significantly reducing avoidable unplanned hospital admissions.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department provides on the complaints and redress routes available to vulnerable patients who have concerns about the contractual terms of telecare services to which they are referred following hospital discharge.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
By law, all health and social care services must have a procedure for dealing efficiently with complaints, and anyone who has seen or experienced poor-quality care has the right to complain to the organisation that provided or paid for the care.
Telecare is not a mandatory service for local authorities, but many choose to provide a telecare service due to its benefits. Some local authorities will also fully or partially fund telecare for some individuals based on a financial assessment. Local authorities are responsible for the contractual terms of telecare services that they provide, therefore in the first instance an individual should consider making a complaint with the relevant local authority.
If an individual is not satisfied with the way a local authority has dealt with their complaint, they may escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who can investigate individual concerns. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is the independent complaints lead for adult social care and investigates complaints from those receiving social care.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities with the cost of non-residential adult social care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is making approximately £4.6 billion of additional funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements.
This includes additional grant funding, growth in other sources of income available to support adult social care, and a £331 million increase to the National Health Service contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund, in line with the Department’s Spending Review settlement.
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a public interest assessment for large-scale acquisitions in the adult social care sector.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) oversees the Market Oversight Scheme (MOS), which was established under Section 53 of the Care Act 2014 as an independent scheme with the aim of ensuring continuity of care services. The MOS was launched in 2015 and monitors the financial sustainability of the largest and most difficult to replace providers of adult social care.
The scheme enables the CQC to give impacted local authorities advance notification in discharging their Care Act obligations to temporarily ensure continuity of care for all people receiving services. The CQC also notifies the Department, which will then activate its Operational Contingency Plan and convene national partners in order to monitor local efforts to ensure continuity of care.
There are no current plans to expand the public interest considerations under the Enterprise Act 2002 beyond matters relating to financial stability, media plurality, and public health emergencies. The Government is committed to ensuring our policy making is informed by the best available evidence.
Merger investigations on competition grounds are a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which operates independently of the Government. The CMA determines which transactions to review based on statutory thresholds and whether there is a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition. The Government keeps the merger control regime under regular review to ensure it remains fit for purpose and works effectively within the current regulatory environment.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of offshore ownership of care assets in the United Kingdom on his Department's plans to introduce (a) a National Care Service and (b) neighbourhood-based care systems.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Private adult social care providers are individual businesses, and the Government does not seek to intervene in their business decisions on company structure. We have been clear that the expectation is for adult social care providers to behave responsibly, including with their financial arrangements, which should promote sustainability.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all people, and to develop and build local market capacity. This includes commissioning a variety of different providers and specialist services from the voluntary, private, or public sector that provide genuine choice to meet the needs of local people and that offer quality and value for money.
More broadly, we are making progress towards a National Care Service based on higher quality of care, greater choice and control, and joined-up neighbourhood services, with approximately £4.6 billion of additional funding available for adult social care by 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to local authorities on decisions affecting individuals with dementia who are already living in suitable care homes, once their capital falls below the adult social care funding threshold; and how such guidance takes into account medical advice, including a doctor’s note, on the potential distress or risks associated with requiring a move to an alternative placement.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities must not charge more than is reasonably practicable and charging policies must be clear and transparent, in line with the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and the Care and Support Statutory (CASS) guidance.
Annex A of the CASS guidance makes clear that the choice of accommodation and additional payment rules apply equally to people entering care for the first time and to self‑funders whose resources have fallen below the upper capital limit. Where this happens, the local authority must conduct a financial assessment to determine what the individual can afford to contribute and must set a personal budget as part of the care and support plan. Annex A of the CASS guidance is available at the following link:
Where an individual’s needs require a particular type of accommodation, the local authority must offer them a genuine choice between suitable providers, including at least one affordable option within their personal budget. The placement must be suitable, available, and offered at the rate identified in the personal budget. Local authorities must also have regard to the wellbeing duty in section 1 of the Care Act when considering accommodation choice.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes in council tax on the cost of living from April 2026.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Council tax levels are decided by local authorities, and the Department has not made specific assessments on the impact of council tax levels on the cost of living for households. For the vast majority of councils, the government intends to maintain a core 3% referendum principle and a 2% adult social care precept. The government will set out final referendum principles as part of the local government finance settlement. Councils are required to put in place council tax support schemes to support those on low incomes.