Asked by: Daniel Francis (Labour - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
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 implications for his policies of the difference between the (a) fee that will be paid to deliver the NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service and (b) cost of delivering the same clinical care in outpatient paediatric ophthalmology clinics.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The fee that has been put in place to underpin the service is aligned to other fees paid for domiciliary sight testing services. NHS England has committed to investing up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and the associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This provides the potential for these services to reach approximately 165,000 children and young people in over 2,000 educational settings, ensuring sight tests are provided in a familiar environment whilst minimising disruption to the school day.
NHS England has engaged with key stakeholders throughout the life of the programme and continues to work closely with local integrated care board commissioners, and the ophthalmic and voluntary sector, to scale up and roll out sight tests for patients in a special educational setting.
Asked by: Daniel Francis (Labour - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS special schools eye care service will have an oversight and evaluation programme in 2025-26 (a) monitoring coverage and uptake and (b) assessing whether it is delivering comparable health and education outcomes to the proof of concept.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is in the process of publishing a final service specification for sight testing in special educational settings that will provide for comparable health and education outcomes to the proof of concept. A process is also being established for ongoing reporting against service delivery which will be confirmed with integrated care boards shortly.
Asked by: Daniel Francis (Labour - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to shift care from hospitals into the community.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are determined to transform the NHS into a neighbourhood health service. As a downpayment we have announced the biggest boost to GP funding in years - an extra £889 million.
However, the reform needed to shift health care from hospital to community will come through our 10 year plan.
We are also making the biggest investment into hospices in a generation, boosting the Disabled Facilities Grant by £86 million and implementing an Elective Reform Plan that will see more tests and scans delivered in the community.