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 support NICE to update their guidelines on the delivery of structured education for people with (a) type 1 and (b) type 2 diabetes to make use of new digital models of delivery.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for developing and updating its guidance as necessary in consultation with stakeholders. The Department contributes to the development of NICE guidance through the consultation process. NICE has guidance on individual approaches to behaviour change which is being updated to consider the use of technology such as apps, text messaging and the internet to drive improvements in behaviours such as physical activity, diet and weight. This will have particular relevance for guidelines around digital delivery of structured education for people living with type 2 diabetes.

For type 1 diabetes NHS England intends to launch a new website in July 2018 on NHS.UK, which will focus on empowering people to self-manage their condition. Individuals visiting the site will be able to access remote personalised digital education content from Diabetes UK and an on-line education programme developed by Bournemouth Diabetes Centre.