Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide guidance to integrated care boards on the (a) quantity and (b) quality of palliative care they are required to provide under the Health and Social Care Act 2022.

No assessment has been made. While the National Health Service has always been required to commission appropriate palliative and end of life care services to meet the reasonable needs of the population, as part of the Health and Care Act 2022, the Government added palliative care services to the list of services an integrated care board must commission, to clarify this responsibility.

NHS England has actively increased its support to local commissioners to improve the accessibility, quality and sustainability of palliative and end of life care for all. This has included the publication of statutory guidance and service specifications, with further resources available on the FutureNHS Collaboration Platform. The statutory guidance and service specifications can be found at the following links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-statutory-guidance-for-integrated-care-boards-icbs/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/service-specifications-for-palliative-and-end-of-life-care-children-and-young-people-cyp/

In addition, NHS England has funded the establishment of a palliative and end of life care Strategic Clinical Network in every NHS England region, which work closely with local commissioners regarding the development of accessible, high quality and sustainable services.