Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the role played by local charities and voluntary groups in delivering social prescribing and preventative healthcare services in Leicester East constituency; and what steps she is taking to support these organisations, including with rising operational costs.

In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, the local National Health Service works with voluntary and community organisations as part of its social prescribing offer, including through the Joy health and wellbeing platform, which connects people with NHS, local authority, and voluntary and community sector services.

Social prescribing activities are commissioned locally according to population need, with local systems responsible for working with voluntary sector partners and determining appropriate funding arrangements. The Government will continue to support the role of the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector as part of the wider shift towards prevention and care closer to home.