Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS resources are targeted towards preventative health and social care.

The importance of effective prevention was recognised in the National Health Service Five Year Forward View and has been reinforced in the Government’s mandate to NHS England. One of the six principles set for the new NHS long-term plan and funding settlement is “focusing on the prevention of ill-health, so people live longer, healthier, happier lives and take greater responsibility for their own care”.

In addition, the annual NHS public health functions agreement (under section 7A of the NHS Act 2006) sets out a range of public health and preventative services to be commissioned by NHS England on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health. Ring-fenced NHS funding of £1,205 million is allocated for these functions in 2018/19.

The Better Care Fund (BCF) requires local authorities and clinical commissioning groups to pool budgets for the purposes of integrated care. Local areas have to submit plans that comply with four national conditions including maintaining the NHS contribution to adult social care in line with inflation. The Government’s policy framework for integration and the BCF envisages integrated, preventative, person-centred care becoming the norm, so that people can be supported to live at home for longer and avoid the need for commissioned health and care services.