Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Diabetes Transformation Fund on the (a) treatment and (b) care of people with (i) type 1 and (ii) type 2 diabetes.

£40 million of transformation funding was made available to improve the treatment and care of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in England in 2017/18 and 2018/19. This investment funds 180 projects focused on improving patient outcomes.

These interventions were selected because evidence indicated that, over time, they should improve outcomes, reduce costs and over the longer term become positively cost-saving:

- £18.9 million (cumulative) has been made available to put in place 41 new or expanded multidisciplinary footcare teams, reducing the risk of people with ulcers or other diabetes foot disease from having an amputation;

- £9.8 million (cumulative) has been made available to put in place 30 new or expanded diabetes inpatient specialist nurse teams, reducing the lengths of hospital stays for people with diabetes through reducing medication errors and advising on effective treatment;

- £20.7 million (cumulative) has been made available to 133 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) who are offering expanded numbers of structured education places to support people newly diagnosed with diabetes to understand how to look after themselves well; and

- £27.8 million (cumulative) has been made available to 108 CCGs to support general practice to increase the number of people who achieve the diabetes treatment targets (HbA1c, blood pressure and cholesterol) and so reduce the risks of complications developing.

NHS England is taking steps to evaluate the impact of the programme.