Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to improve end of life care for (a) adults and (b) children; and if he will make a statement.

On 5 July 2016 we published Our Commitment to you for end of life care, which set out what everyone should expect from their care at the end of life and the actions we are taking to make high quality and personalisation in care a reality for everyone, both adults and children. This Commitment includes measures to enable personalisation, measures to improve care quality and education and training in end of life care and measures to encourage the spread of innovative models of care. This includes enabling greater use of advance care planning and electronic care records to record people’s choices and preferences, and building services around people’s needs and preferences. Our Commitment to you for end of life care is available at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/choice-in-end-of-life-care-government-response

Over the last 12 months the National End of Life Care Programme Board has been taking forward implementation. All relevant arm’s-length bodies and key charitable partners are represented on the Board to ensure system wide action and accountability. We are aiming to publish a progress report on the delivery of the Commitment this summer.