Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve support for children with arthritis.

Most types of childhood arthritis are known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Although the exact cause of JIA is unknown, the symptoms often improve as a child gets older, meaning they can lead a normal life. Services for children with arthritis are provided separately by specialist paediatric rheumatology teams under the umbrella of paediatric services.

NHS England has commissioned a Respond and Advise Clinical Reference Group for paediatric specialised rheumatology. As part of this, it has commissioned a service specification available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/e03-paedi-medi-rheum.pdf

Service specifications are important in clearly defining the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care. The specifications have been developed by specialised clinicians, commissioners, expert patients and public health representatives to describe both core and developmental service standards.