Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will work with Versus Arthritis to improve (a) care and (b) support for young people with arthritis.

On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, which sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by the end of this Parliament.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services that meet the needs of their populations, including for those with arthritis. To support this, the Department of Health and Social Care is delivering the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Community Delivery Programme jointly with NHS England and the Department for Work and Pensions. With a £3.5 million funding boost, GIRFT will work with the ICBs to reduce MSK community waiting times.

The Department funds research into MSK conditions, including arthritis, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Through that route, the Department spent approximately £26.3 million on MSK research in 2023/24, and £79.2 million since 2019/20. In particular, the Leeds Biomedical Research Centre aims to improve treatment for osteoarthritis. The NIHR, in collaboration with Versus Arthritis, also funds a dedicated UK MSK Translational Research Collaboration, aligning investment in MSK translational research and creating a United Kingdom-wide ambition and focus to drive cutting edge research and improve outcomes for patients.

The GIRFT programme in NHS England has had a paediatric rheumatology workstream since April 2024. The team has assembled the largest ever set of data and information about paediatric rheumatology in England and is visiting every department in England to discuss its findings. It will produce its national report with recommendations later this financial year. This will include a focus on supporting young people and their parents as they transition to adult services.

The GIRFT team will be working with the British Society for Rheumatology and rheumatology departments in England to implement the findings and recommendations of the GIRFT paediatric rheumatology national report.

NHS England Specialised Commissioning has a Clinical Reference Group for specialised paediatric rheumatology, which has produced a service specification naming juvenile idiopathic arthritis as one of the conditions that should be managed by a specialist paediatric rheumatology team. The service specification also sets out that specialised paediatric rheumatology teams will provide transitional care to facilitate transfer to, and ongoing care in, adult rheumatology. Specialised paediatric rheumatology services are expected to be commissioned in line with this service specification.

The Department will continue to work with Versus Arthritis as we consider how best to provide National Health Services for people with MSK conditions such as arthritis.