Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that dementia is explicitly designed into the neighbourhood health model at a national level and to prevent local discretion and variable commissioning decisions in relation to such services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is empowering local leaders with the autonomy they need to provide the best services to their local community, including those with dementia. This is why we have published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia.
We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity, informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, which is expected this year. The framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia.
Neighbourhood Health provides the unifying framework that brings together what is already underway across primary care, community services, urgent care, prevention, digital, estates and population health into a single, coherent model focused on improved access, experience and outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that every neighbourhood health service in England includes dementia specialism within multidisciplinary teams, with dementia specialist nursing as a core component.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neighbourhood Health Services will bring together integrated neighbourhood teams of professionals and partners closer to people’s home, including nurses, doctors, social care workers, pharmacists, health visitors, employment support, children’s services, and more, to work together to support people and places to improve their health and wellbeing.
Neighbourhood Health provides the unifying framework that brings together what is already underway across primary care, community services, urgent care, prevention, digital, estates and population health into a single, coherent model focused on improved access, experience and outcomes.
The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs) and may include specialist nurses. We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish national dementia outcomes for neighbourhood health services requiring integrated care boards to demonstrate timely access to specialist, community-based dementia support.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In developing the Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, we are engaging with a wide group of partners to understand what should be included to ensure the best outcomes for people living with dementia. As part of this exercise, we are considering all options to help reduce variation, including reviewing metrics and targets.
The Neighbourhood Health Service will be the driving force behind our new Genomics Population Health Service; and data will increasingly allow Neighbourhood Health Services to deliver genuinely predictive and pre-emptive care, transforming our care model entirely.
NHS England already collect and publish data about people with dementia at each general practice in England, to enable National Health Service general practitioners and commissioners to make informed choices about how to plan their dementia services around patients’ needs.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Dementia Intelligence Network has also developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to update the Quality and Outcomes Framework to reflect the direction for the NHS set out in the 10 Year Health Plan for England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicators and associated guidance are updated and published each year as part of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract negotiations. The current consultation on the 2026/27 GMS contract is ongoing and includes proposals to update the QOF which align with the 10-Year Health Plan’s focus on moving from sickness to prevention. We expect to publicly announce the outcome following the conclusion of the consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Merron on 16 December 2025 (HL Deb col 661), what estimate they have made of RSV-related hospitalisations among infants under the age of one this season, and how this compares with the 2024/25 season.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom maternal immunisation programme to protect infants started in September 2024 and is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The information requested is not available, however respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) hospital admission rates in those under five years of age are reported in Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Watch surveillance weekly reports.
Further surveillance data and a programme impact assessment will be included in the annual surveillance report on RSV, due to be published in summer 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of pharmacy-first protocols and pharmacy-led clinics in the early intervention and ongoing management of chronic spontaneous urticaria.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Chronic spontaneous urticaria is not one of the conditions currently included in the Pharmacy First Clinical pathway protocols. NHS England will continue to keep the clinical scope of the Pharmacy First service under review, including any future service expansion to include new conditions.
If patients do not qualify for the Pharmacy First service, they should still be able to access healthcare advice from their pharmacy. Support for self-care is an essential service that all pharmacies must provide. This can include the provision of healthcare advice, the sale of over-the-counter medicines and, where appropriate, pharmacies must signpost to other providers if the supply of a prescription-only medicine is required.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce incentives to encourage the adoption of recommendations in the Modern Service Framework for Cardiovascular Disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To accelerate progress towards the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) in 2026. The CVD MSF will support consistent, high quality, and equitable care whilst fostering innovation across the cardiovascular disease pathway.
The Department and NHS England are engaging widely throughout the development of the CVD MSF to ensure that we prioritise ambitious, evidence-led, and clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment, and care, and as part of this we are considering the role of levers and incentives.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, what the terms of reference will be for prevention accelerators; and which high-impact interventions those accelerators will focus on.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The sickness to prevention shift is one of three major shifts described in the 10-Year Health Plan to transform the health service. As part of this shift, prevention accelerators will demonstrate that investment in high-impact interventions on cardiovascular disease and diabetes can improve population health and reduce demand for National Health Services, such as elective appointments and general practice appointments.
Work to agree the formal arrangements with prevention accelerators is ongoing, alongside finalising the specific high-impact interventions that they will prioritise. We will share further information on the action underway in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to prioritise (1) dermatology, (2) allergy, and (3) immunology, as clinical specialties within future modern service frameworks.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery.
The Government will consider clinical specialities for future waves of modern service frameworks, including allergy, dermatology, which includes chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), and immunology. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on disease burden, care variation, economic impact, and where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity.
The Department recognises the potential benefits of virtual clinics in improving access to specialist care for conditions like CSU. A central part of our 10-Year Health Plan is moving care closer to home, and we recognise that we need to do this while retaining access to specialist support. Trusts should provide the infrastructure and resources to facilitate virtual consultations, but this should not replace face-to-face care where it is more appropriate, dependent on clinical need, or preferred by individual patients.
NHS England’s service specification for specialised dermatology services for adults and children is designed to reduce regional disparities in care for CSU by setting consistent national standards for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. The specification ensures that all patients, regardless of location, have access to evidence-based interventions and specialist expertise, including advanced therapies where clinically appropriate. The specification addresses historical variations in service provision and supports equitable access across integrated care systems. This approach helps to improve outcomes for patients with CSU and ensures a more uniform level of care throughout England.
Additionally, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme is working to improve capacity and waiting times through its established Further Faster programme. This programme brings together hospital trust clinicians and operational teams with the challenge of collectively going ‘further and faster’ to transform patient pathways, reduce unnecessary follow-up outpatient appointments, and improve access and waiting times for patients.
A Further Faster handbook for dermatology has been produced, to share best practice and support National Health Service dermatology teams to reduce the number of Did Not Attend appointments, reduce unnecessary follow ups and, where appropriate, reduce the number of outpatient appointments by booking patients straight to tests, helping to free up capacity for patients in need of specialist dermatology services.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of virtual clinics for chronic spontaneous urticaria to reduce waiting times and improve patient outcomes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery.
The Government will consider clinical specialities for future waves of modern service frameworks, including allergy, dermatology, which includes chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), and immunology. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on disease burden, care variation, economic impact, and where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity.
The Department recognises the potential benefits of virtual clinics in improving access to specialist care for conditions like CSU. A central part of our 10-Year Health Plan is moving care closer to home, and we recognise that we need to do this while retaining access to specialist support. Trusts should provide the infrastructure and resources to facilitate virtual consultations, but this should not replace face-to-face care where it is more appropriate, dependent on clinical need, or preferred by individual patients.
NHS England’s service specification for specialised dermatology services for adults and children is designed to reduce regional disparities in care for CSU by setting consistent national standards for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. The specification ensures that all patients, regardless of location, have access to evidence-based interventions and specialist expertise, including advanced therapies where clinically appropriate. The specification addresses historical variations in service provision and supports equitable access across integrated care systems. This approach helps to improve outcomes for patients with CSU and ensures a more uniform level of care throughout England.
Additionally, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme is working to improve capacity and waiting times through its established Further Faster programme. This programme brings together hospital trust clinicians and operational teams with the challenge of collectively going ‘further and faster’ to transform patient pathways, reduce unnecessary follow-up outpatient appointments, and improve access and waiting times for patients.
A Further Faster handbook for dermatology has been produced, to share best practice and support National Health Service dermatology teams to reduce the number of Did Not Attend appointments, reduce unnecessary follow ups and, where appropriate, reduce the number of outpatient appointments by booking patients straight to tests, helping to free up capacity for patients in need of specialist dermatology services.