Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that specialist powered wheelchairs and essential adaptations are recognised and funded as essential medical equipment.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services based on the needs of their local population, including specialist powered wheelchairs.

NHS England supports integrated care boards to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs such as offering personal wheelchair budgets. The framework is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/