Leigh Ingham

We recognise the importance of supporting and maintaining children’s right to play, as games and active play in all settings build social skills and support children’s wellbeing. The Play Well toolkit that was recently jointly launched by NHS England and the charity Starlight helps services to identify opportunities to improve health play services.

While funding decisions for health play services remain the responsibility of local commissioners, the Department remains supportive of NHS England’s work to continue to champion the toolkit and the importance of child-centred care across healthcare settings.

To support implementation, NHS England is promoting the Play Well toolkit to managers of health play services across a wide range of settings, including community clinics, emergency departments, children’s hospices, and acute paediatric wards.

A range of communication channels have been used to raise awareness, including engagement with services via professional bodies, messaging via the Chief Nursing Officer, and a forthcoming blog post and press release in partnership with Starlight. Starlight will be co-leading a webinar with NHS England this month to raise awareness of the toolkit.

We recognise the importance of supporting children's right to play as games and play help build social-skills and support children’s wellbeing. In October 2025, the Starlight Children's Foundation will mark Play in Healthcare Week, celebrating 50 years of play and highlighting its importance for children in healthcare settings. Together with NHS England, Starlight co-published the Play Well Toolkit, which is designed to help services enhance the quality of health play provision.

The Department remains supportive of the Starlight Foundation and NHS England’s work to champion that toolkit and promote child-centred care across healthcare settings and encourages work to publicise its use during this week.

Experiencing pregnancy or baby loss can be extremely difficult and traumatic and we are determined to make sure all women receive the right care.

An assessment has not been made of the potential merits of introducing mandatory follow-up ultrasounds after surgery related to miscarriage in (a) general and (b) cases of pregnancy being over 10 weeks gestation.

Best practice guidance for the care of women following surgical management of miscarriage is based on evidence about what will give the best outcomes of care. Ultrasound following the procedure is only clinically indicated in a small proportion of cases. Performance of ultrasound post procedure is determined by clinical need and judged on a case-by-case basis both before and after 10 weeks gestation.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. ICBs, including the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB, which covers the Stafford constituency, are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

As set out in the Government’s recently published 10-Year Health Plan, we are determined to shift more care out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting. Palliative care and end of life care services, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift, and were highlighted in the plan as being an integral part of neighbourhood teams.

The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that, in future, services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

Urgent treatment centres and emergency departments, also known as accident and emergency, provide a different range of services to patients.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for this year will continue the expansion of urgent treatment centres that are co-located with emergency departments. This allows for the effective streaming of patients away from emergency departments, helping to reduce the number of people who spend time there, and overcrowding.

In November 2024, the Government published the independent Older People’s Housing Taskforce report, originally commissioned prior to the July 2024 General Election. The Taskforce undertook an assessment of public and private specialised and supported older people’s housing, with a particular focus on the private market for those on middle incomes, and explored options for the provision of greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people. The full report and recommendations alongside two pieces of research undertaken for the Taskforce are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-older-peoples-housing-taskforce-report

The Government is currently considering the recommendations set out in the report and remain fully committed to providing homeowners with greater rights, powers and protections over their homes by quickly implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

If an individual disagrees with the outcome of an NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) assessment, they may apply to the integrated care board (ICB) for a Local Resolution procedure. Where it has not been possible to resolve the matter through the Local Resolution procedure, the individual may apply to NHS England for an Independent Review of the decision.

We have interpreted ‘appeals against decisions’ as a request for Local Resolution or Independent Review of CHC eligibility decision requests, and ‘were upheld in favour of the applicant’ to mean the number of these found eligible. The following table, provided by NHS England, shows the number of Local Resolution requests to review a CHC eligibility decision completed by ICBs, and the number and percentage of those found eligible, from Quarter four of 2023/24 to Quarter three of 2024/25, for England:

In addition, the following table show the number of Independent Review requests to review a CHC eligibility decision carried out by NHS England, and the number and percentage found eligible, from Quarter four of 2023/24 to Quarter three of 2024/25, for England:

Social workers involved in an autistic person’s care have a duty to promote their human rights, safety and wellbeing, assess their needs and help facilitate access to the right services.

The regulator for the social work profession, Social Work England, sets the professional standards. These are standards all social workers must meet. The professional standards include that social workers must be able to provide, or support people to access, advice and services tailored to meet their needs.

Social workers complete initial education and training, for which training providers must meet Social Work England’s Education and Training Standards. These standards require training providers to ensure that the course is continually updated because of developments in research, legislation, Government policy and best practice.

Additionally, under the Health and Care Act 2022, Care Quality Commission-registered providers are required to ensure their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. This will help to ensure that staff, including social workers, have the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and informed care.

To support this, we have been rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism. Over two million people have already completed the e-learning package which is the first part of this training.

Ambulance services in Stafford are provided by the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, with responsibility for commissioning services a matter for the local Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board. Any assessment of the specific local actions needed to improve response times should be undertaken and agreed locally by National Health Service organisations in the best interests of the local population and patients.

At a national level, the Government and NHS England are committed to improving ambulance response times. The NHS 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance sets national priorities, which include improving accident and emergency waiting times and ambulance response times compared to 2024/25.

As of 4 February 2025, in the Stafford constituency, there were 13 National Health Service dentist practices, with five showing as ‘accepting new child patients when availability allows’ and two showing as ‘accepting new adult patients when availability allows’. Data is not held on the number of open NHS dentists in the Stafford constituency for 2010.

This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist/

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. The CQC has powers under the Health and Care Act 2008 to regulate adult social care services to make sure they provide safe, effective, compassionate, and high-quality care. Where concerns on quality or safety are identified, the CQC uses the regulatory and enforcement powers it has available, and will take action to ensure the safety of people drawing on care and support.

Day activity centres, in which social, recreational, and care services may be provided to older people or those with a disability, are not currently within the scope of the CQC’s regulation, as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Any changes to those regulations would be subject to the usual Parliamentary process, which would include a public consultation, and thus an opportunity to consider the merits of further regulation of services.