Health Bill

Debate between Daniel Francis and Danny Beales

Report stage
Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his work on the all-party parliamentary group; he is a real champion of this cause. AJM Healthcare, the contractor in my constituency, has a similar level of failure. People are left for months—sometimes six months—without a wheelchair, bed-bound and unable to get out of the house. Does he agree that ICBs seem completely at sea on this issue, and are totally unaccountable? Does he agree that we need much tougher measures, such as those he suggests, to hold them to account?

[Daniel Francis]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. As I will come on to, there is an inconsistent set of data across the country. This inconsistency is not just between ICBs but, in the case of my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham and Chislehurst (Clive Efford), between neighbouring London boroughs, which may have the same ICB but different frameworks.

I also welcome the support for the amendment from the Children’s Commissioner, who has said:

“Across the country, children wait far too long for the right equipment that is essential for daily life. In recent research on children experiencing delayed discharge from hospital, the office was told that delays in getting equipment, and having equipment serviced, had led to children being stuck in hospital, away from family, friends and school.”

This postcode lottery is not just cross-country—I know of a number of ICBs in which there are significant issues—but within ICBs. In my part of south-east London, one patient can be discharged, while another, in the same hospital with the same condition, living on the opposite side of the road, cannot be discharged. That difference arises because a borough boundary runs down the road. There are different contractual arrangements between different London boroughs in the same ICB. I know at first hand that pupils in the same school class, and in the same ICB, can have completely different service standards for their wheelchairs because one lives in one London borough while another lives in the neighbouring borough.

I will speak briefly to new clause 85, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft). Like me, she is the parent of a disabled child. We have fought these issues for many years, both as parents and on behalf of our constituents. In my case, I know that when Ofsted found that there were systemic failings in our SEND provision, we could hold our local authority to account, but we could not properly hold our ICB to account. The judgment was issued against the council, not the ICB.

Wheelchair Provision: Independent Review Body

Debate between Daniel Francis and Danny Beales

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Daniel Francis (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Lab) [R]]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the potential merits of establishing an independent national review body overseeing wheelchair provision.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for agreeing to this morning’s debate. I declare an interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for wheelchair users, alongside Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson; as the chair for the all-party parliamentary group for access to disability equipment; and as the parent of a wheelchair user.

Through the APPG’s work, we have heard directly from stakeholders and service users about the unacceptable delays that wheelchair users face in accessing suitable equipment, often with reduced health outcomes as a result. Too often we also hear that service users are confined to using completely inappropriate wheelchairs as that is, frankly, their only option. The issues I will discuss today in patients accessing disability equipment are also all too evident to me as chair of the APPG for access to disability equipment. I pay tribute to the Wheelchair Alliance and Whizz Kidz for their dedication in their advocacy for wheelchair users across the UK and for their support in preparing for today’s debate. I am grateful to have secured the debate and, as Members know, I am the parent of a wheelchair user and have lived and breathed the issues that so many wheelchair users face in accessing wheelchair provision.

The wheelchair quality framework, published in April 2025, outlines that wheelchairs provide

“a significant gateway to independence, wellbeing and quality of life for thousands of adults and children. They play a substantial role in facilitating social inclusion and improving life chances through work, education and activities that many people who do not need wheelchairs take for granted.”

While I welcome the framework for introducing some minimum standards and expectations, in my experience—and I will come to that later—it is the case that the user deals with the contractor, not the integrated care board. The ICB appears to have little or no idea, quite often, what the actual experience for users is when dealing with the contractor.

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this very important debate. I know this is a subject on which he has much knowledge, experience and passion. ShopMobility, a group of volunteers who provide mobility aids at the shopping centre to get people out and about in the town centre, have recently reported to me that many of their customers are coming to them waiting for wheelchair provision from the contractor, sometimes for more than six months. I have also had young people with cerebral palsy and other conditions unable to get basic repairs to their existing equipment. Does he agree with me that these are simply unacceptable levels of services for what is vital equipment, not optional extras? Is that not exactly why, as he says, we need an independent review body to scrutinise the poor performance of the contractors and commissioners?

[Daniel Francis]

Absolutely; I completely agree. I will refer later to the position that we now know of, how ombudsman complaints have risen exponentially in recent years, and to the experience of many people, including that of my own daughter, who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, in the kind of delays that my hon. Friend has outlined.

In the 2024-25 financial year, there were 630,000 wheelchair users registered in England, with 70,600 of them under 18 according to NHS data. However, that figure does not include those who have purchased their wheelchairs privately, or those unable to obtain the right equipment through the NHS. In 2018-19, the Wheelchair Alliance estimated there were a total of 780,000 users. That was an estimate due to lack of robust evidence to back those assumptions. There is no set location on NHS health records to identify whether someone is a wheelchair user. With many users purchasing their wheelchairs privately, or being provided a wheelchair through a charity, NHS data does not provide an accurate picture and we remain in the dark about the true number of wheelchair users in England. Unfortunately across the country we are seeing countless examples of wheelchair users being systematically failed by their service providers, and I am sure we will continue to hear horror stories throughout this debate. Wheelchair users face long waiting times, poor fitting and unsuitable equipment, and complex and fragmented access pathways, with reports of a postcode lottery in accessing wheelchair provision.