Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish the National Stroke Plan.

There has been progress in stroke prevention, care and treatment as a result of the 10 year stroke strategy, which was published in 2007.

Building on that success, NHS England has established an expert working group with partners representing patients, carers and stroke professionals and the wider health and social care system. This group is co-chaired by the Stroke Association, and includes the Neurological Alliance, NHS Improvement, the British Association of Stroke Physicians, Public Health England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and Health Education England. The group’s aim is to ensure that this progress is not only maintained but enhanced.

Part of this approach has involved bringing together national programmes of work such as NHS RightCare that have a focus on stroke, in order to set ambitions for future improvement summarised into a coherent plan. This is currently under discussion and further engagement with health, social care and voluntary sector partners is underway. The timeline for delivery of any plan will be agreed with the help of the expert working group as the links with related work such as the cardiovascular disease prevention programme become more established.