Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken steps to provide forums for (a) officials and (b) Ministers to learn from international examples of best practice in the delivery of healthcare.

The Department routinely engages with partners from overseas to share knowledge and best practice, to support strategy and policy development across the Department.

As part of the 10-Year Health Plan engagement exercise, we have been working with international experts to understand different countries’ approaches to delivering healthcare, and the three shifts at the centre of the plan, from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. In March, the Department jointly hosted two ministerial led roundtables with WHO EURO and Kings College London, where international experts shared experiences of implementing the three shifts. Attendees from around the world included former ministers, government officials, academics, and health system experts, to provide expert insight into international best practice.