Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to prioritise funding for public health and primary, community, and social care, in order to resolve capacity problems in A&E and hospital trusts.

The ‘2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance’, published on 23 December 2022, sets out the action and funding agreed with NHS England to begin recovering National Health Service core services and productivity, including additional capacity for Urgent and Emergency Care. A copy of the guidance is attached.

There will be £1 billion of funding through system allocations to increase capacity based on agreed system plans. It is anticipated that capacity will be focused on increasing General & Acute capacity, intermediate and step-down care and community beds with an expectation of an increase in the utilisation of virtual wards. £600 million will be distributed in 2023/24 and £1 billion in 2024/25 through the Better Care Fund to get people out of hospital on time into care settings, freeing up NHS beds for those that need them. In addition, a £400 million ring-fenced local authority grant for adult social care will support discharge among other goals. There will also be an increase in allocations for systems that host ambulance services to increase ambulance capacity.