Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with Integrated Care Boards about their policies to reduce delayed discharge from hospital where patients meet the criteria to (a) return home or (b) receive community care.

The Government is working to reduce delayed discharges, ensuring that people are not stuck in hospital beds when they are well enough to go home. We will tackle delayed discharges by improving local partnership working between the National Health Service and the social care system, making sure people get the right support to return home as soon as possible. To drive improvements, we will work with those systems experiencing the worst discharge delays, using senior experts from across local government and the NHS.

On 30 January 2025, the Government published a revised Better Care Fund policy framework for 2025/26. As part of this, the NHS and local authorities will be expected to make measurable improvements on delayed discharges.

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and I continue to engage with key partners and meet regularly with NHS England to discuss discharge and urgent & emergency care performance.