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 ensure the adequacy of funding for the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.

National Health Service providers (NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts) such as Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, are not funded centrally but instead fund their spending from income mostly received from NHS commissioners in return for the provision of healthcare services to their local population.

The NHS Long Term Plan, backed by the Government’s funding of £33.9 billion in cash terms by 2023-24, has been developed to take the health system forward. As part of this the Government has set clear objectives for the NHS in the form of five financial tests, including a financial sustainability commitment to return the provider sector to balance in 2020-21.