Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure there is nationwide post-diagnosis cancer support across the UK.

The National Health Service (NHS) Long Term Plan for Cancer states that where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. The Government is committed to delivering this ambition.

Cancer Alliances are leading programmes of work to embed these personalised care interventions within local providers. NHS England and NHS Improvement is supporting staff to offer personalised care to people affected by cancer by promoting awareness and understanding of the interventions and how to improve their quality. This includes providing resources such as a handbook on personalised stratified follow up, a checklist on health and wellbeing information and support and sharing of best practice.

Holistic Needs Assessments and personalised care interventions more broadly are now widespread. Data from Cancer Alliances in March 2021 showed that, despite the pandemic, approximately 83% of all cancer multi-disciplinary teams (approximately 1,130 teams) had implemented Personalised Care and Support Planning based on Holistic Needs Assessment. This is significant progress compared to a baseline in 2017 of approximately 25% of teams.