Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has to develop a national strategy for self care.

The Five Year Forward View made a specific commitment to do more to support people with long term conditions manage their own health. Further to this, sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) have a remit to consider how to improve self-care.

In 2015 NHS England established the Realising the Value Programme. This was designed to identify evidence-based approaches that engage people in their own health and care and develop practical tools to support implementation. The programme has now published tools and guidance for local health economies, as well as an economic modelling tool to help services understand the costs and benefits.

NHS England is also rolling out the Patient Activation Measure (PAM). The PAM is a tool which captures the extent to which people feel engaged and confident in taking care of their health and wellbeing, helping professionals to tailor support. NHS England has agreed to grant 1.8 million people with long term conditions across 27 areas access to the tool.

Eight STP areas to take part in its new one year Building Health Partnerships programme supported by NHS England to facilitate strong engagement with the voluntary sector and local communities on actions that improve wellbeing and self-care. NHS England is also working with 15 new care models across the country to test how to deliver support for self-care, systematically and at scale. By working with the new care models, NHS England plans to offer tailored self-care support to 25,000 – 30,000 people by end of March 2018, delivered through health coaching/self-management education and social prescribing, supported by use of the PAM.