Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has conducted an impact assessment of the effect on people with spinal cord injuries resulting from the planned NHS Continuing Healthcare budget savings of £855 million by 2020-21.

NHS England’s NHS Continuing Healthcare Strategic Improvement Programme aims to provide fair access to NHS Continuing Healthcare in a way which ensures better outcomes, better experience, and better use of resources.

The programme does not aim to reduce spending on NHS Continuing Healthcare, but to reduce the rate of growth of expenditure. The projection is for spending on NHS Continuing Healthcare to increase by over 20% by 2020/21, or an average of approximately 3.9% per year.

It is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups to commission NHS Continuing Healthcare packages of care appropriate to the needs of individuals, and for assessing the impact of their funding decisions. Eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare is based on needs and is not specific to any particular condition or diagnosis.