Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations, including general practices, are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS across NHS organisations, including integrated care boards, with awareness raising, communication, and engagement. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.

In addition, NHS England is also rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) which enables the recording of key information about a disabled patient or client and the reasonable adjustments to care and treatment that they need, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately and equitably.

Under the new RADF information standard, all publicly funded health and social care service providers must be able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. This means that IT systems must be able to read the information stored in reasonable adjustment digital flags and update records as and when an individual’s adjustment needs change.

Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations, including general practices, are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS across NHS organisations, including integrated care boards, with awareness raising, communication, and engagement. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.

In addition, NHS England is also rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) which enables the recording of key information about a disabled patient or client and the reasonable adjustments to care and treatment that they need, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately and equitably.

Under the new RADF information standard, all publicly funded health and social care service providers must be able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. This means that IT systems must be able to read the information stored in reasonable adjustment digital flags and update records as and when an individual’s adjustment needs change.

Integrated care board (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population. For the Slough constituency, this is the Frimley ICB.

The Government is committed to ensuring people can access urgent dental care when they need it. Over the past year, ICBs have been commissioning additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country. We are broadening the scope of the commitment to deliver additional appointments so that they can be used for more patients, not just those who meet the clinical criteria for “urgent” care.

We are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, on 16 December we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on quality and payment reforms to the NHS dental contract. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with greatest need first, incentivising urgent care and complex treatments. Further information is available at the following website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms/outcome/government-response-to-consultation-on-nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms

We recognise the challenges in accessing general practices (GPs). That’s why we are expanding capacity across England, including in Slough. Since October 2024, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support recruitment of over 2,000 GPs, exceeding our initial target of 1,000. Changes in the 2025/26 contract have also removed restrictions so individual primary care networks can hire more GPs.

We are also introducing a practice‑level GP reimbursement scheme, worth £292 million, enabling practices to hire additional GPs or fund extra GP sessions. This will improve access, boost capacity, and support GP employment.

Slough sits within the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board, where the number of appointments delivered in GPs has increased by 6.7%, rising from 358,000 in December 2024 to 382,000 in December 2025.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Slough constituency, this is the Frimley ICB.

We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.

ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response shortly.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.

We are determined to rebuild National Health Service dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are recruiting dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

We recently held a public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. We will publish a response shortly.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.

Waiting times for those referred to mental health services are too high all across England, including in the South East.

Too many people with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.

We are committed to improving mental health care for people with a range of mental health conditions, and to shifting the focus from treatment to prevention, as we make the National Health Service fit for the future.

In the Spending Review announcement, we have confirmed that we will fulfil the Government’s commitments to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff, to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, by the end of the Parliament, and we will expand mental health support teams in schools in England to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30.

Our reforms to the Mental Health Act will give patients a greater say in their care and will ensure that people get the appropriate and compassionate mental health support they need.

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The funding will help hospices to provide the best end of life care to patients and their families in a supportive and dignified physical environment.

We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding from integrated care boards (ICBs) for providing National Health Services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area, but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative care and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.

We are also working to make sure the palliative and end of life care sector is sustainable in the long term and are determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community through our 10-Year Health Plan.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Slough constituency and Berkshire, this is the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB.

ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB is expected to deliver 15,454 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

There are a range of exemptions to National Health Service dental patient charges for those who need the most financial support. 48.6% of courses of dental treatment were delivered to adults and children who were exempt from charges in 2023/24.

Eligibility for free NHS dental care includes people who are being treated in an NHS hospital by the hospital dentist, although patients may have to pay for any dentures or bridges. Treatment is also free for people receiving certain benefits, including Income Support and Pension Credit. Support is available through the NHS Low Income Scheme for those patients who are not eligible for an exemption or a full remission of dental patient charges. Further information about support with NHS dental patient charges is available from the following link:

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/get-help-with-dental-costs

There are a range of exemptions to National Health Service dental patient charges for those who need the most financial support. 48.6% of courses of dental treatment were delivered to adults and children who were exempt from charges in 2023/24.

Eligibility for free NHS dental care includes people who are being treated in an NHS hospital by the hospital dentist, although patients may have to pay for any dentures or bridges. Treatment is also free for people receiving certain benefits, including Income Support and Pension Credit. Support is available through the NHS Low Income Scheme for those patients who are not eligible for an exemption or a full remission of dental patient charges. Further information about support with NHS dental patient charges is available from the following link:

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/get-help-with-dental-costs

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In performing that duty, a local authority must have regard to the need to ensure that it is aware of current and likely future demand for such services and to consider how providers might meet that demand.

The Government is supporting local authorities by making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

No specific estimate has been made as the information is not held in the format requested. However, NHS England publishes monthly dementia diagnosis data in the primary care dementia data set official statistics. Data for March 2025 showed that the number of patients with a recorded diagnosis of dementia was 83,945 in the South East, and 610 in Slough. The number of people estimated with dementia ranges from 122,500 to 147,000 in the South East, and 900 to 1,200 in Slough.

The Government is committed to ensuring that families of people with dementia have the support they need.

Local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including their duties related to carers.

The CQC has published their assessments of 17 councils in London and the South East. They will publish the assessment reports for Slough and other local authorities in the South East in due course.

Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.

The AIS conformance criteria, published in 2016, set out how NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers should comply with the AIS, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/equality/equality-hub/patient-equalities-programme/equality-frameworks-and-information-standards/accessibleinfo/resources/assess-conformance/

The responsibility for monitoring compliance with the AIS sits with the commissioner of the service.

Employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver safe and effective treatment for patients, and to deploy them in the best way to ensure the delivery of health services to their populations.

Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.

NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision.

A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force, and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of the disabled people using these services.

The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

The Government is committed to improving dementia care and is empowering local leaders with the autonomy they need to provide the best services to their local community, including for those with dementia. That is why we have recently published the Dementia 100 Pathway Assessment Tool, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for busy system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia. The Dementia 100 Pathway Assessment Tool has now been launched, and is available at the following link:

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/nccmh/service-design-and-development/dementia-100-pathway-assessment-tool

To improve care for patients with dementia, we have refreshed the RightCare Dementia Scenario. The scenario works through the dementia well pathway journey from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and sub optimal approaches, with associated costings for each. They have developed a dementia model pathway based on data for each component of the dementia well pathway, to provide a high-level view of what dementia care activity looks like for local areas and to aid targeted support where appropriate.

It is for individual National Health Service organisations, including NHS trusts and integrated care boards, to comply with the Equality Act 2010. Under the Equality Act 2010, organisations have a legal duty to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are as accessible to disabled people, including deaf people, as they are for everybody else. This includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients.

Health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the NHS and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated. Following the launch of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard, published September 2023, the flag went live in the National Care Record Service, and is being rolled out across England.

Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including deaf people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force, and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.

It is for individual National Health Service organisations, including NHS trusts and integrated care boards, to comply with the Equality Act 2010. Under the Equality Act 2010, organisations have a legal duty to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are as accessible to disabled people, including deaf people, as they are for everybody else. This includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients.

Health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the NHS and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated. Following the launch of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard, published September 2023, the flag went live in the National Care Record Service, and is being rolled out across England.

Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including deaf people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force, and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.

We recognise the challenges facing the adult social care system, and we are taking immediate action to improve the situation. These actions include:

• making up to £3.7 billion of additional funding available for social care authorities in 2025/26, including a £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant, resulting in a 6.8% increase to local government spending power in cash terms;
• taking forward a range of initiatives in 2025/26, including funding more home adaptations, promoting better use of care technologies, and professionalising the adult social care workforce;
• increasing the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit in April 2025 from £151 a week to £196, to support our unpaid family carers;
• introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to the adult social care sector so that care professionals are recognised and rewarded for the important work that they do; and
• launching an independent commission, which will begin in April 2025, as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. Chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, the commission will make clear recommendations for how to rebuild the adult social care system to meet the current and future needs of the population.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care. The Department funds an annual programme of support to local authorities and their partners to help them improve the delivery of their statutory duties.