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.

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.

Ministers and officials in the Department of Health and Social Care meet regularly with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to discuss a range of issues.

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. This includes supporting people with sight loss to develop practical skills and strategies to maintain independence.

Regarding an assessment of the adequacy and availability of vision rehabilitation services, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is now assessing how local authorities are meeting the full range of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. These assessments identify local authorities’ strengths and areas for development, facilitating the sharing of good practice, and helping us to target support where it is most needed. This means that sensory services, including vision rehabilitation, form part of the CQC’s overall assessment of local authorities’ delivery of adult social care. In that context, the CQC will report on sensory services when there is something important to highlight, for example, something being done well, innovative practice, or an area for improvement.

The following table shows the latest available performance data on waiting times against the existing mental health waiting time standards for NHS Frimley, which covers the Slough constituency, for the latest available 12-month reporting period, from October 2023 to September 2024:

Source: Mental Health Services and NHS Talking Therapies datasets.

As of 5 December 2024, there are 14 general practice surgeries in the Slough constituency. Of these, zero, or 0%, are rated Outstanding; 12, or 85%, are rated Good; and two, or 14%, have yet to be rated.

NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board is responsible for making adequate and appropriate provision available to meet the mental health and other care needs of children and young people in Slough.

It is the responsibility of the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board to make available appropriate provision to meet the mental health and other care needs of children and young people in Slough.

Nationally, we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across children and adult mental health services to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on busy children and young people’s mental health services.

We will also provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England so that mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can be identified early on and prevented from developing into more serious conditions in later life. We will also roll out open access Young Futures hubs for children and young people in every community. This national network is expected to bring local services together, and deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges.

We are currently working with colleagues at NHS England and across Government to consider options to deliver these commitments.