Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available to the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire Integrated Care Board to increase community audiology services across West Berkshire.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population. This includes the arrangement of community audiology services.

The Medium Term Planning Framework – delivering change together 2026/27 to 2028/29 sets a clear target for systems to work to, in order to reduce long waits for community services. By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks. In addition, to support the shift to neighbourhood health, systems have been asked to increase community health service capacity to meet the growth in demand and to work to standardise the provision of core services.

Systems have also been asked to improve productivity across community health services, by identifying and acting on productivity opportunities, including ensuring teams have the digital tools and equipment they need to connect remotely to health systems and patients, and to expand point-of-care testing in the community.