Terminal Illnesses: Continuing Healthcare

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Wednesday 13th June 2018 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your stewardship, Ms McDonagh. I start by congratulating the hon. Member for Islwyn (Chris Evans) on securing this important debate on NHS continuing healthcare. I pay tribute to him for the inspiring work he does on the all-party parliamentary group on motor neurone disease. I also pay tribute, like him, not only to those who suffer from this very cruel illness, but to those who provide the unstinting care and compassion to loved ones who go through that horrible experience.

One of my first experiences as a Member of Parliament was helping a constituent who had motor neurone disease to get her continuing healthcare package to kick in during a very difficult part of her life. I am completely aware of the people to whom the hon. Gentleman refers. I met a few carers for people with motor neurone disease earlier this week, as part of carers week. As ever, I was completely overwhelmed by their incredible sense of duty and the commitment that they give to those for whom they care.

The hon. Gentleman is right to ask for further clarity on the issues he raised, and I hope that today I can provide him with some reassurance on those issues about which he is most concerned. We know that continuing healthcare is provided to some of the people with the highest and most complex health and care needs in the country, and they deserve our support. Of course, the nature of the situation presents some challenges. The hon. Gentleman made some valid points about the current issues facing the NHS continuing healthcare system, including some of the issues raised in the Public Accounts Committee earlier this year. I will set about trying to address them all, and will drop him a line afterwards about anything that I miss out.

Decisions about NHS continuing healthcare are important because they have a very big impact on people’s lives. It is right that there is a careful and considered decision-making process in place. The hon. Gentleman talked about people not being aware of continuing healthcare, which was a really good point. It is fundamental that we raise awareness of continuing healthcare and ensure that those who are entitled to it during a particularly difficult period of their lives claim it. Work on that by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care is under way, and will be announced later this summer, as we have confirmed to the Public Accounts Committee.

My Department is responsible for the NHS continuing healthcare national framework, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned. An updated version of the framework was published on 1 March, and will be implemented on 1 October this year. The revised framework follows an extensive period of external engagement with stakeholders and patient representative groups, including the Continuing Healthcare Alliance and those working within the NHS and local government. The update incorporates a new structure, which is intended to provide clarity, reflect legislative changes such as the Care Act 2014, and include minor clarifications on some policy areas. It is really important to underline that none of the changes is intended to alter the eligibility criteria for NHS continuing healthcare or the extent of the service provided by the NHS.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned progress and the next steps on the NHS continuing healthcare assessment tools. As set out in the Government’s response to the Public Accounts Committee, my Department is working very closely with NHS England to review the NHS continuing healthcare checklist tool. That work is due to report by this autumn. However, we know that those changes alone are not enough to deliver all the necessary improvements, particularly on some issues such as the variation in eligibility criteria, which the hon. Gentleman highlighted. That is why we are working very closely to support NHS England with their NHS continuing healthcare improvement programme.

It is important to be clear that there will always be some variation in NHS continuing healthcare eligibility rates. Such variation can be due to a wide variety of reasons, including the age dispersion within the local population and variation between geographical areas in health needs. It is really important that NHS England is working to understand the unwarranted variation in eligibility rates between clinical commissioning groups, and helping them to apply the national framework more consistently. NHS England is also developing a pilot to test the feasibility and the cost of running a sustainable case-level audit of eligibility decisions across clinical commissioning groups, to provide that kind of assurance on consistency and fairness in the provision of NHS continuing healthcare, which we all know is utterly vital.

Another area that NHS England is working to improve is the length of the NHS continuing healthcare assessment process. A quality premium is now in place to incentivise clinical commissioning groups to carry out more than 80% of assessments within 28 days. There is, of course, also a fast track for those who need the service much quicker. Clinical commissioning groups with the highest numbers of delayed cases are required to establish improvement plans to set out key milestones and planned measures to improve.

The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to hear that progress is being made. The latest quarterly data shows that in the last quarter of 2017-18, 66% of assessments were completed within 28 days. That is still not good enough, but it is up from 58% at the beginning of the year. The number of clinical commissioning groups delivering the expected standard of 80% within 28 days has gone up from 52 to 87 so far this year. As I have said, there is steady progress, but more to do.

The hon. Gentleman raised the target of £855 million of efficiency savings that we are planning by 2021. It is really important that I make it absolutely clear that that is not a cut in spending, but a reduction in growth in spending. Spending will continue to rise in real terms, with a projected budget increase of almost 4% a year, and of 20% between 2015-16 and 2020-21. I think he will agree that that rate of growth would be the envy of many other areas of health and care spending—indeed, of many other Departments.

The eligibility threshold for NHS continuing healthcare has not changed. The assessment of needs by a multidisciplinary team, as well as the primary health need test that we set out in the national framework, must be adhered to when deciding on continuing healthcare eligibility. No financial considerations or efficiency programmes alter that. Any planned efficiencies are not predicated on changes to eligibility or on limiting the care packages available. Clinical commissioning groups have an absolute responsibility to ensure high-quality standards of care, and any reduction in the growth in spending must not affect that.

It is vital that we continue to work closely with NHS England, local authorities and key stakeholders to ensure that we keep improving the system for those who need it. I know that there is still work to do, as the hon. Gentleman has highlighted, but I hope that he can appreciate that the Government and NHS England are aware of the challenges that we face in the provision of NHS continuing healthcare. I hope that he is aware of my personal dedication to getting this right. I am confident that the steps we are taking to improve the system are the right ones and will deliver an improved experience for patients, families and carers.

Question put and agreed to.