One of the three ‘shifts’ that the 10 Year Health Plan will deliver is around the Government’s determination to shift healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting. Palliative care and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift and were highlighted in the plan as being an integral part of neighbourhood teams.

I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all- age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

To support integrated care boards (ICBs) in the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The guidance makes specific reference to commissioners defining how their services will meet population needs 24/7 and includes a priority action for ensuring that staff, patients, and carers can access the care and advice they need, whatever time of day.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on the service delivery of end of life care for adults also includes recommendations about 24/7 access to care. Although NICE guidance is not mandatory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.

The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to help ensure that services remove variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

One of the three ‘shifts’ that the 10 Year Health Plan will deliver is around the Government’s determination to shift healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting. Palliative care and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift and were highlighted in the plan as being an integral part of neighbourhood teams.

I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all- age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

To support integrated care boards (ICBs) in the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The guidance makes specific reference to commissioners defining how their services will meet population needs 24/7 and includes a priority action for ensuring that staff, patients, and carers can access the care and advice they need, whatever time of day.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on the service delivery of end of life care for adults also includes recommendations about 24/7 access to care. Although NICE guidance is not mandatory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.

The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to help ensure that services remove variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

One of the three ‘shifts’ that the 10 Year Health Plan will deliver is around the Government’s determination to shift healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting. Palliative care and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift and were highlighted in the plan as being an integral part of neighbourhood teams.

I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all- age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

To support integrated care boards (ICBs) in the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The guidance makes specific reference to commissioners defining how their services will meet population needs 24/7 and includes a priority action for ensuring that staff, patients, and carers can access the care and advice they need, whatever time of day.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on the service delivery of end of life care for adults also includes recommendations about 24/7 access to care. Although NICE guidance is not mandatory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.

The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to help ensure that services remove variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

One of the three ‘shifts’ that the 10 Year Health Plan will deliver is around the Government’s determination to shift healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting. Palliative care and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift and were highlighted in the plan as being an integral part of neighbourhood teams.

I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all- age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

To support integrated care boards (ICBs) in the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The guidance makes specific reference to commissioners defining how their services will meet population needs 24/7 and includes a priority action for ensuring that staff, patients, and carers can access the care and advice they need, whatever time of day.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on the service delivery of end of life care for adults also includes recommendations about 24/7 access to care. Although NICE guidance is not mandatory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.

The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to help ensure that services remove variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

On 19 June 2025, the Department laid a Code of Practice in Parliament which sets out how providers can meet the statutory requirement for learning disability and autism training.

Over three million people have completed the e-learning package, the first part of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism (Oliver’s Training). National Health Service providers have reported that approximately 520,000 people have completed either Tier 1 or Tier 2 of Oliver’s Training. At the end of August 2025, 2,850 people have been trained to deliver Oliver’s Training and have been added to the Approved Trainer list.

Data on completion of Oliver’s Training by the NHS is held locally and is reported to NHS England by the integrated care boards. This data does not differentiate between completion by frontline staff and other NHS and social care staff and is instead focussed on the overall completion of Tier 1 and Tier 2.

The Department will be providing funding in autumn 2025 to support rollout of Oliver’s Training to the adult social care sector, via the same online claims service as the Learning and Development Support Scheme.

While the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including charitable hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and those important to them. As charitable hospices are independent, autonomous organisations, they are free to set their own wages and some associated costs, and the Department does not hold or collect this information.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of local populations has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For Warrington South constituency, this is NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.

We will deliver 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, and ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB is expected to deliver 46,617 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

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 are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. While no specific assessment has been made at the national level, ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations, which includes consideration of the potential impact of any efficiency requirements on the provision of services to patients.

To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

The Government has taken a critical first step towards a National Care Service by launching an independent commission into adult social care.

The commission will build national consensus to create a National Care Service that is productive, preventative, and gives people who draw on care, and their families and carers, more power in the system.

It will be for the independent commission to determine their approach, but we expect it will include engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, including people with lived experience and unpaid carers, as well as building cross-party consensus. Further details will be set out by the commission in due course.

In the short-term, we are laying the foundations for a National Care Service by introducing legislation for the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for the care workforce, expanding the first-ever national career structure for the adult social care workforce, digitising care providers, and setting new standards for care technologies.

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 the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, 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 Warrington South constituency, this is the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.

ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB is expected to deliver 46,617 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.

This Government recognise the vital role that community pharmacies play as an integral part of our health system and local community. We are working with Community Pharmacy England on the pharmacy contract, which will start to stabilise the sector and make it fit for the future, and we will announce the outcome very shortly. On hub and spoke dispensing, we intend to lay draft secondary legislation in the coming weeks to come into force later this year.

The actions set out in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England will apply to missing people where relevant. However, we are not taking any specific actions targeted at measuring and reducing suicide rates among people reported missing.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we are committed to tackling suicides as one of the biggest killers, working closely with other government departments and agencies.

The actions set out in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England will apply to missing people where relevant. However, we are not taking any specific actions targeted at measuring and reducing suicide rates among people reported missing.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we are committed to tackling suicides as one of the biggest killers, working closely with other government departments and agencies.

The Department welcomes knowledge sharing across the sector and officials will consider the report in future policy development. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, care providers are required to provide sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled, and experienced staff to meet the needs of the people using the service.

We now have a national career framework for adult social care, the Care Workforce Pathway, which is linked to several existing competency frameworks, including the dementia training standards framework. The Department developed the pathway in partnership with Skills for Care, representatives from the adult social care workforce, and people who draw on care and support.

The Department has also launched a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification which links to outcomes in the Care Workforce Pathway. This contains the baseline knowledge required to provide quality care and will make sure that those who are starting out their careers in care have an informed awareness of dementia.

Access to National Health Service mental health services is based on clinical need, including for patients with a neurological diagnosis.

More broadly, we know that 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, and that people, including those with a neurological diagnosis, can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.

I have met with NHS England to discuss how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care. I also recently met Together for Short Lives and one of the chairs of the Children Who Need Palliative Care All Party Parliamentary Group to discuss children’s palliative and end of life care, and funding was discussed at length at this meeting.

Department officials meet regularly with palliative and end of life care stakeholders, including Hospice UK, Sue Ryder, Marie Curie, and Together for Short Lives. We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face. We will consider next steps on palliative and end of life care, including funding, in the coming months.

Additionally, we have committed to develop a 10-year plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, by driving three shifts in the way health care is delivered. We will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our stakeholders as we develop the plan. More information about how to input into the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

We have been actively encouraging our stakeholders to engage with that process to allow us to fully understand what improvements could be made.