Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department is taking to increase access to specialist wheelchairs for children in Nottingham East constituency.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, and responsibility for providing disabled children’s equipment would typically fall to the National Health Service and local authorities.

NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from clinical commissioning groups, now ICBs, on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, with the aim of supporting improvements where required. Further information can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/national-wheelchair

NHS England is taking steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving intervention and equipment. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025 which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs, such as offering personal wheelchair budgets. The framework is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB is actively working to ensure equitable access to specialist wheelchair services across the region, including Nottingham City and South Nottinghamshire. This is being pursued through:

• the procurement of a unified long-term wheelchair service for Mid-Nottinghamshire and Bassetlaw and aligning service specifications and reporting with Nottingham University Hospitals, the provider for South Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City; and
• a plan to introduce Key Performance Indicators, which will include monthly reporting to monitor access, equipment, and service delivery timescales for children and adults across different localities. This work is planned to start in Nottingham University Hospitals in the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year.