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 improve the provision of full-time community palliative and end of life care.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care, from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care will have a big role to play in that shift.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications to support ICBs in this duty, which make specific reference to the fact that commissioners should ensure there is sufficient access to continuous care.

I recently met NHS England and discussions have begun on how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care. We will consider next steps on palliative and end of life care in the coming months.