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 data collection on the (a) prevalence and (b) impact on (i) public health and (ii) the NHS of long-term health conditions.

The Government wants a society where every person, including those with a long-term condition, and their families and carers, receives high-quality, compassionate continuity of care. We will change the National Health Service so that it becomes not just a sickness service, but one able to prevent ill health in the first place. This will help us be better prepared for the change in the nature of disease and allow our services to focus more on the management of chronic, long-term conditions.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions. ICBs are allocated funding by NHS England to meet local needs and priorities, and improve outcomes. NHS England continues to set national standards, service specifications, and clinical access policies, to which ICBs are expected to apply.

We recognise that, in order to ensure the NHS is fit for the future, we must improve care for those with long-term conditions. One of the working groups supporting the development of the 10-Year Health Plan has been asked to develop a vision for how the NHS can evolve to provide responsive, joined-up care to better support individuals with complex health needs who may require frequent, ongoing engagement with the NHS. The group, chaired by Dr Claire Fuller and Caroline Abrahams CBE, will consider what improved care would look like for both individuals living with a single or multiple long-term conditions, including, for example, mental health conditions or disabilities, as well as individuals with multiple complex needs, including those that are frail or approaching the end of their life.

We know that appropriate work is generally good for health and wellbeing. We want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live.

Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group, so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, and have a range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, as well as support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.

As part of the Get Britain Working plan, the Government is launching Keep Britain Working, an independent review into the role of United Kingdom employers in reducing health-related inactivity, and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces.

As ICBs are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions, most of the data regarding the prevalence of long-term health conditions is collected at the ICB level, although the 10-Year Health Plan will also be focussing on the improved use of data in the health system, as part of the shift from analogue to digital.