Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to deliver age-appropriate (a) care and (b) settings for teenagers and young adults with cancer.

The Department is committed to improving outcomes and patient experience for teenagers and young adults with cancer. We recognise that cancer in teenagers and young people is different to cancer in adults and children, and so age-appropriate care is necessary, particularly regarding treatment, diagnosis, and wider support.

A national service specification is in place for the provision of teenage and young adult (TYA) cancer services. This sets out requirements for treatment and care to be delivered in age-appropriate settings, as well as the provision of age-appropriate patient information. A dedicated TYA multidisciplinary team must oversee the care of each young person, taking into account their holistic needs, including the appropriate location of all aspects of care. Further information on the national service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-b/b05/

We are committed to carefully considering this as part of our work through the relaunch of the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce in 2025, which will focus specifically on teenagers and young adults as well as children, ensuring that their clinical and non-clinical needs are met. We will set out further details on next steps in due course.