NHS 10-Year Plan

Debate between Kevin Bonavia and Wes Streeting

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question—representation duly received. I reassure him that one of the ways we will ease the pressure valve on our hospitals is by doing more neighbourhood health. That helps to drive admission avoidance, speed up delayed discharges, and get much more effective flow of patients through hospitals. That is our commitment. We aim to roll out 40 to 50 neighbourhood health centres over the course of this Parliament, and if we can go faster, we will. I have no doubt that my hon. Friend, as a strong representative for Dartford, will make more representations to us shortly.

[Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State and everyone involved in creating this well-designed and excellent 10-year plan. There is so much good stuff in it, but I particularly like the approach of shifting treatment from hospitals to neighbourhoods and homes. Many of my constituents in Stevenage have been taken to Lister hospital when they do not want or need to be there, but we have an alternative. The Minister for Social Care and my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Andrew Lewin) recently joined me on a visit to the Hertfordshire community NHS trust’s “hospital at home” service. Is that something that the Secretary of State and the health team are determined to roll out?

[Wes Streeting]

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. The change will mean that people in Stevenage start to feel real improvements in their ability to access the NHS. Of course, that is in no small part thanks to this country’s amazing life sciences sector, which has its beating heart in Stevenage.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kevin Bonavia and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)]

22. What plans he has to reform NHS health and social care services.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)]

Before the election, we made it clear that investment and reform were needed in the NHS. The Chancellor announced the investment in the Budget, and since the general election we have confirmed the introduction of new league tables of NHS providers, with high-performing providers being given greater freedom over funding and flexibility. We are sending turnaround teams into struggling hospitals, giving the best performers greater freedoms over funding to modernise technology and equipment. We are creating a new college of executive and clinical leadership that will help to attract, keep and support the best NHS leaders. We are banning NHS trusts from using agencies to hire temporary entry-level workers in bands 2 and 3, such as healthcare assistants and domestic support workers. We are sending crack teams of top clinicians to areas with long waiting lists and high economic inactivity to improve the productivity of their clinics, and we are running a GP red tape challenge to slash bureaucracy. I could go on, because this is a Government who are walking the talk on NHS reform.

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend and other Members from across Medway to discuss the challenges that their part of the south-east faces, and to explain why our predecessors made promises they could not keep, with timetables that were completely fictitious and funding that runs out in March. I am really sorry for the way that communities were let down by the previous Government. This Government will not make the same mistakes.

[Kevin Bonavia]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his earlier answer. Last week, I spoke to one of my constituents, Norman Phillips, who has been an unpaid carer for his wife Ros for the past 18 years. Like many unpaid carers across Stevenage, Norman has been put through absolute hell by the previous Tory Government’s complete inaction on social care for over 14 years. Does the Secretary of State agree that unpaid carers such as Norman play a vital role in providing care, and that unpaid carers need to be at the heart of any reforms to the social care system—reforms that are much needed?

[Wes Streeting]

I, too, pay tribute to Norman and to family carers like him, who play such a vital role supporting loved ones. Through the carer’s allowance uplift in the Budget, the Chancellor announced the largest increase to the weekly earnings limit since the introduction of carer’s allowance in 1976. As well as that investment, we will have a 10-year plan for social care, and I see the care workforce, care providers and family carers as all being important partners in building that plan.