Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the creation of accountable care systems from sustainability and transformation plans does not lead to geographical inequalities in the provision of cancer services across England.

The recently published ‘Next Steps on the Five Year Forward View’ stipulated that Sustainability and Transformation Plans will now begin the process of evolving into accountable care systems, providing better aligned and coordinated care that best meets the needs of the local population.

Accountable care systems will do this through bringing together National Health Service organisations (both commissioners and providers), often in partnership with local authorities, to take on clear, collective responsibility for resources and population health. This includes encapsulating the work of Cancer Alliances, which provides a focus for improvement and leadership of cancer care locally. They are required to work with any accountable care systems within their geographies to ensure that they deliver an improvement in outcomes for their whole population.

The NHS is also rolling out the RightCare and Getting It Right First Time programmes to reduce unwarranted variation and improve outcomes across the NHS.