Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 ensure that patients who live in England and treated in Wales are impacted by changes to NHS organisation in England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are special cross-border arrangements for patients who live on the English-Welsh border to ensure that they receive healthcare without confusion or delay and that patient data can be accessed by relevant professionals.
To drive reform of the health and care system, we are creating a new operating model for the health and care system, with a smaller, more agile centre. The changes will allow the national centre to operate very differently to the current arrangements and support delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan. Throughout this work we will retain focus on delivery, patient safety, and on driving reform across the whole of the health and care system.
As part of these wider changes, NHS England has also asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within their structure, with the expectation of achieving a reduction in their running cost allowance.
ICBs have developed their plans in accordance with the guidance set out by the Model ICB Blueprint. NHS England is working with the ICBs to review and implement these plans. These plans should affirm the critical role of the ICBs as strategic commissioner, with their core functions centred in population health management, including understanding local context, developing a long-term strategy, allocating resources, and evaluating impact. ICBs, as strategic commissioners, continue to have the duty to arrange health services that meet the needs of their population and to manage cross-border arrangements.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with colleagues in the Department for Transport on the potential impact of access to public transport on access to healthcare.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers regularly engage with Cabinet colleagues on a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, areas impacting access to healthcare. As set out in the Plan for Change, by March 2029 we will deliver the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. The Government is clear that reforming elective care must be done equitably and inclusively for all adults, children, and young people.
It is important that patients do not miss or cancel hospital appointments due to a lack of affordable and/or accessible transport options in their area. This is why the Elective Reform Plan, published January 2025, committed to reviewing existing national health inequalities improvement initiatives, to develop them and increase their uptake. Specifically, the plan committed to reviewing local patient transport services and improving the signposting to, and accessibility of them for patients, to make it easier for vulnerable groups to travel to, and access appointments.
This includes improving the accessibility, awareness, and efficiency of the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme, with a focus on reducing health inequalities and improving the patient experience.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will conduct a child rights impact assessment of the proposed merger of NHS England and his Department.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is completely focused on delivery during this period of change, including taking forward our Health Mission and putting in place measures to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, including those to children, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate.
The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that the public and parliamentarians are informed of the outcomes.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 increase the number of NHS dentists in North Shropshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the North Shropshire constituency, this is the NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB.
ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB is expected to deliver 7,408 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years. As of 6 June 2025, in England there were 93 dentists in post or appointed to post. A further 230 posts are currently being advertised.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 62692 on Air Ambulance Services: Contracts, if he will take steps to establish which air ambulance organisations hold contracts with NHS organisations in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service contracts or agreements for the provision of services locally are made and held at a local level by the relevant NHS body. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of differing NHS (a) targets and (b) waiting lists in England and Wales on patients living in border communities.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The devolution of health is a long-standing policy, and no assessment has been made.
For patients living in border communities, we expect local health care services to work closely to ensure differing targets and waiting lists are managed appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
We work closely with partners across the devolved administrations to provide support and share best practice to reduce waiting lists. This includes sharing learning as the National Health Service in England makes progress toward delivering the Government’s ambition of ensuring that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.
The Government has now exceeded its pledge to deliver two million extra operations, scans, and appointments in England, having delivered 4.2 million additional appointments.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June to Question 56902 on Integrated Care Boards: Redundancy, (a) how the costs of restructuring will be met and (b) when when the national redundancy scheme will be launched.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we have been clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs reductions, in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy. Good progress is being made, with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit or redundancy schemes.
We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement, which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day to day spending in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. We are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs ahead of announcing further redundancy schemes.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many foundation pharmacist training places have a named designated prescribing practitioner confirmed in the ORIEL recruitment system in 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All training posts in the National Recruitment Scheme for the 2025/26 training year were required to declare that they would provide access to a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP) for prescribing supervision as part of their agreement to the Terms of Participation.
NHS England requires that DPP information is submitted within 13 weeks of the trainee pharmacist starting in post. Trainee pharmacists will start in post from July 2025. NHS England is therefore, currently in the process of contacting training sites and requesting details of all supervisors, including Designated Supervisors and DPPs.
It should be noted that only the training sites hosting trainee pharmacists that have graduated from a Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree against the 2021 learning outcomes are required to have a DPP. Those who have completed an MPharm which meets the previous (2011) standards for education and training or are studying on an Overseas Pharmacists Assessment Programme course, must take a separate accredited independent prescribing course.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 adequacy of funding provided for social care in the Spending Review 2025, in the context of estimated demographic trends in the next three years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government assessed the impact of the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2025. This assessment took account of a range of factors, including demographic pressures, that could affect the delivery of social care services.
The Spending Review process allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26. This includes additional grant funding, growth in other sources of income available to support adult social care, and an increase to the National Health Service contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund, in line with the Department’s Spending Review settlement.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many officials in his Department are assigned to work on the social care review.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are 11 officials currently assigned by the Department to work on the independent commission into adult social care, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey. This includes Baroness Casey’s independent secretariat team and a small departmental sponsorship function.