Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department will take to reduce the (a) length of time taken for the Continuing Health Care eligibility appeals process and (b) effect of that process on individuals and families going through it.

There are currently no plans to review the effectiveness of the Decision Support Tool (DST). The DST was originally developed in 2007 and has been reviewed periodically since then, with the most recent iteration being published in 2018.

The National Framework for Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and NHS Funded Nursing Care (the Framework) encourages eligibility appeals to be processed in a timely manner. It also lays out the expectation for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to engage in a person-centred approach, ensuring the individual, and/or their representative, is fully aware of, and involved in, the processes. Upon completion of the assessment, a clear explanation of how the decision of eligibility was reached should be provided, as well as an explanation of the appeals process.

There are Assurance Standards in place, which allow NHS England to monitor the performance of CCGs on the delivery of CHC assessments. The Framework sets out that CHC assessments must be undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team.