Department of Health and Social Care

Debate between Ashley Dalton and Anna Dixon

Wednesday 5th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ashley Dalton]

Everyone knows that the previous Government’s promise of 40 new hospitals was a fiction: there were not 40, they were not new, and many of them were not even hospitals. We have put the programme on a firm footing with sustainable funding, so all those projects will actually be delivered.

In response to the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran), I am more than happy to work with the Committee to clarify the funding for NHS providers. I understand that there is already quite of lot of information in the public domain, and I am more than happy to have that conversation with her.

On financial levers and incentivising prevention, the 10-year health plan is really the driver of all our shifts—from analogue to digital, from hospital to community, and from sickness to prevention. It will set out how we achieve transformational change. As part of that, the plan’s working groups are looking at how payment mechanisms, funding flows and contracting will need to change to build a health system that is fit for the future.

On ENICs, we have been here before. The Government will provide support to Departments for additional ENICs for public sector employees, and commissioned services are all subject to local negotiation with providers.

I want to move on to public health, in which I take a particular interest. I agree with hon. Members on the importance of public health investment. In 2025-26, through the public health grant and the 100% retained business rates arrangements for local authorities in Greater Manchester, we are increasing funding to £3.858 billion—a 5.4% cash increase, and 3% in real terms. It is a priority for this Government to confirm future year allocations as early as possible, and we will seek to do that. It is a priority of mine.

We have talked a lot about social care. Louise Casey commands great respect across political parties, the Government and the NHS, which is why she will lead the independent commission on adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a national care service. She will begin her work in April, drawing on people who need care and their families, staff, politicians, and the public, private and third sectors to inform the recommendations on how we rebuild adult social care.

[Anna Dixon]

I welcome the Minister to her place and congratulate her on her new role. On building a national care service and the Casey review, will she reassure me and other Members of the House that there will be a first-phase report in 2026 to inform the spending review, and that we will have action sooner than the 2028 final report?

[Ashley Dalton]

I can confirm that, as has already been stated, those interim reports will take place, with a view to informing spending reviews.

I want to pick up on the point made by the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) about the cross-party talks. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to colleagues from all the UK-wide parties to invite them to joint cross-party talks in February. Not everybody was able to take part—a significant number of people were not—and we think it is really important to have a wide range of views at such talks. We have taken the decision to reschedule them, but we will make sure that they take place. We are seeking to reorganise those talks at the earliest opportunity, and I can confirm that the intention is to go ahead with them.

We have committed to look at how we can further expand the role of pharmacies and better utilise the clinical skills of pharmacists, and we have now resumed our consultation with Community Pharmacy England regarding the funding arrangements for 2024-25 and 2025-26. I am unable to say any more on that until the consultation has finished.

To wrap up, we are undertaking the largest capital investment in our national health service since Labour was last in office, but if we are to deliver our promises to the British people, we must deliver faster improvement than even the last Labour Government achieved. Investment and reform are what we promised before the election, and investment and reform are what we are delivering. We will ensure that the NHS is there for people when they need it; we will tackle the big killers, such as cancer; and we will create a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer, while making sure that every penny of taxpayer money is well spent. I commend the estimates to the House.