General practitioners are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.

NICE provides evidence‑based guidance relevant to the diagnosis and management of conditions that may cause balance disorders, helping to ensure consistent and high‑quality care. In addition, programmes such as Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) and NHS RightCare support improvements in service quality and help to reduce unwarranted variation.

All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice. In 2012 the General Medical Council introduced revalidation which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, gives patients confidence doctors are up to date with their practice, and promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.

The training curriculum for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners, and has to meet the standards set by the General Medical Council.

Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they instead emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.

Decisions regarding any potential workforce plan publication for social care remain under consideration and no final position has been reached. In line with the manifesto, the Department is committed to ensuring the publication of regular, independent workforce planning, across health and social care.

Social care makes an important contribution to managing demand for services in the National Health Service, and care workers are essential to those who draw on care and support, helping them maintain their quality of life, independence and connection to the things that matter to them. Care workers deserve to be recognised and supported for the important work they do.

That is why the Department is supporting the Adult Social Care workforce by improving terms and conditions through introducing a new Fair Pay Agreement backed by £500 million funding to improve pay and conditions for the adult social care workforce, as well as supporting career development and progression by implementing the first ever career structure and investing up to £10 million in training and qualifications.

The Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care will provide a clinically-led, evidence-based framework to support sustained improvement in patient and carer outcomes, including reducing both inequality and unwarranted variation. Areas of action will be identified for those commissioning and delivering services, with associated performance and outcome metrics to support system accountability. The MSF will seek to embed palliative care and end-of-life care within a strategic commissioning model that is centred on population need.

We will publish an interim update on the MSF shortly. The final MSF will be published this autumn.

The Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care will provide a clinically-led, evidence-based framework to support sustained improvement in patient and carer outcomes, including reducing both inequality and unwarranted variation. Areas of action will be identified for those commissioning and delivering services, with associated performance and outcome metrics to support system accountability. The MSF will seek to embed palliative care and end-of-life care within a strategic commissioning model that is centred on population need.

We will publish an interim update on the MSF shortly. The final MSF will be published this autumn.

We know that more needs to be done to support women experiencing the menopause. The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we reform the National Health Service.

General practitioners are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge, including on menopause, remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.

All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. The training curriculum for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners, and has to meet the standards set by the GMC.

NICE published their updated guideline in November 2024 and recommended more treatment choices for menopause symptoms. The updated guideline aims to support healthcare professionals by providing them with the information they need to support evidence-based decisions about treatment choices, as well as information and support about menopause. The guideline recommends hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as the most effective treatment for vasomotor symptoms, and also recommends that for people over 40 years old healthcare professionals should consider menopause-specific cognitive behavioural therapy as an option for vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause in addition to HRT. HRT is the main treatment for menopause symptoms, and NICE recommends that for most women it is safe and effective.

The new women’s health data dashboard released last week reports on HRT use in different areas of the country and provides one measure of how consistently services are being provided.

NHS England will shortly publish an equity framework which will help systems identify and tackle inequalities in access to menopause care and regularly report on differences in HRT use for women of different ethnicities and of different socio-economic status.

The Government recognises that pharmacies are an integral part of the fabric of our communities, as an easily accessible ‘front door’ to the National Health Service, staffed by highly trained and skilled healthcare professionals.

In the Autumn Budget 2025, the Government took the hard choices to protect the NHS in England and continue to prioritise reducing waiting times. We have also stepped in to cap bills and help businesses, as part of a £4.3 billion support package.

This year, we have also increased funding to community pharmacies to almost £3.1 billion, the largest uplift in funding for any part of the NHS across 2024/2025 and 2025/2026. Any consideration of reimbursement of business rates for pharmacy contractors would be considered as part of this consultation, as with other providers.

The Department will consult Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors for 2026/27 shortly.

In the 2025 Autumn Budget, the Government took the hard choices to protect the National Health Service in England and to continue to prioritise reducing waiting times. We have also stepped in to cap bills and help businesses, as part of a £4.3 billion support package.

This year, we have also increased funding to community pharmacies to almost £3.1 billion, the largest uplift in funding for any part of the NHS across 2024/25 and 2025/26.

The Department will consult Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors for 2026/27 shortly.

Neighbourhood health sits at the heart of the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan. Our ambition is to build a service that: delivers more personalised care closer to where people live; empowers individuals to lead healthier, more independent lives; and offers genuine choice in how to access support. Further information on the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future

We are engaging with local government sector representatives, as well as the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, to understand how neighbourhood health plans and centres can make best use of the full range of existing local assets, as well as create opportunities to co-locate and join up a broad range of health-impacting services. This includes those that are local authority commissioned and owned as well as those that are National Health Service commissioned and owned.

We will be publishing further guidance to support local areas to develop Neighbourhood Health Plans in due course. This will set out how the NHS, local authorities, and partners should work together under the leadership of Health and Wellbeing Boards to develop and implement plans.

We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, that will mean the service will look different in rural communities, coastal towns, and/or deprived inner cities.

Neighbourhood health sits at the heart of the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan. Our ambition is to build a service that: delivers more personalised care closer to where people live; empowers individuals to lead healthier, more independent lives; and offers genuine choice in how to access support. Further information on the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future

We are engaging with local government sector representatives, as well as the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, to understand how neighbourhood health plans and centres can make best use of the full range of existing local assets, as well as create opportunities to co-locate and join up a broad range of health-impacting services. This includes those that are local authority commissioned and owned as well as those that are National Health Service commissioned and owned.

We will be publishing further guidance to support local areas to develop Neighbourhood Health Plans in due course. This will set out how the NHS, local authorities, and partners should work together under the leadership of Health and Wellbeing Boards to develop and implement plans.

We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, that will mean the service will look different in rural communities, coastal towns, and/or deprived inner cities.

The pharmaceutical sector and the innovative medicines it produces are critical to our national interest, helping people to access life changing treatments, reducing pressure on the health service over the longer-term, and ensuring we have a National Health Service that is fit for the future.

Thanks to the strength of our relationship with the United States, we have secured the first and only deal with them that delivers 0% tariffs on pharmaceutical products, the lowest rate offered to any country. This deal secures the United Kingdom’s access to and supply of medicines for tens of thousands of patients while safeguarding our supply chain and ensuring groundbreaking new treatments will reach the NHS front line quicker. It also delivers mitigations on the US’ ‘Most Favoured Nation’ policy and preferential terms for UK MedTech exports, helping expand access innovative treatments for patients and driving crucial investment in the UK.

I am delighted to have announced in a written ministerial statement yesterday that the Government are developing a palliative care and end-of-life care modern service framework for England. The modern service framework will be aligned with the 10-year health plan, prioritising shifting care out of hospitals and into the community to ensure personalised, compassionate support for individuals and their families.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, engages with Baroness Louise Casey regularly on a number of issues, including adult social care.

On 8 September, my Rt. Hon. Friend attended cross-party discussions, chaired by Baroness Casey, with representatives from political parties.

Over the coming months, the commission will start a national conversation by inviting members of the public, people drawing on care and support, and organisations to submit evidence and to share their stories and ideas for improvement of the existing adult social care system. The commission will set out more details in due course.

Adult social care plays a vital role and directly supports people of working age to enter, remain in, or return to employment, and ultimately to maintain people’s independence. By ensuring individuals receive the right care in the right place at the right time, they are better able to contribute to society through employment, volunteering, or other forms of participation. To support working aged people into the labour market, earnings from employment are specifically disregarded from financial assessments, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2672/regulation/14

This is to ensure that working aged adults who are in employment are able to retain their earnings in full, and supplement their income, in addition to retaining the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) after being charged for their social care.

The Government also recognises the importance of supporting unpaid carers. Access to appropriate support, such as respite care, is important to help carers maintain their own wellbeing and avoid burnout, which can otherwise lead to withdrawal from the workforce. To support this, we are committed to reviewing the implementation of Carer’s Leave and examining the benefits of introducing paid Carer’s Leave.

In England, we will continue to review the use of mercury in dental amalgam fillings and restrict and phase down their use. Administrations across the United Kingdom routinely work together to share best practice and to deliver on our common goals for improving patients’ experiences of healthcare services, including access to dentistry.

Following the abolition of Public Health England and the establishment of the UK Health Security Agency, ministers regularly meet with key stakeholders to discuss a range of issues, including but not limited to dentistry.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and to commission a range of high-quality, sustainable care support services to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services.

Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that private care homes can charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.

The Government is supporting local authorities by making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26. This includes over £1 billion for the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF), with one of the three target areas local authorities can spend their allocations on being to improve fee rates to providers.

In a letter I sent out to Council Leaders in January 2025, I set out the expectation that in 2025/26, when commissioning services, local authorities should ensure fee levels for care and support services take account of the actual costs of care in their area, including inflationary and all other pressures, such as the rise in National Living Wage and the changes to employers National Insurance Contributions.

As part of our monitoring of the MSIF grant conditions and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department including data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest being available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/market-sustainability-and-improvement-fund-2024-to-2025-care-provider-fees/market-sustainability-and-improvement-fund-msif-provider-fee-reporting-2024-to-2025

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, 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 Farnham and Bordon constituency, this is the NHS Frimley ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Frimley ICB is expected to deliver 6,626 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

ICBs have started to advertise 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.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has regular discussions with my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and colleagues across the Cabinet on a whole host of issues across our brief, including palliative and end of life care services.

However, as part of the work to develop the 10-Year Health Plan, we will be carefully 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 partners.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift.

Additionally, in February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

The Government and NHS England remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%.

The NHS Operational Planning Guidance is not an exhaustive list of everything the National Health Service does, and the absence of a target does not mean it is not an area of focus. We have yet to take decisions on future iterations of the guidance.

The Government wants a society where every person with dementia receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs, including people living with dementia. We are carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan.

In February, I hosted a roundtable discussion where partners shared how dementia, ageing well, and digital inclusion could be reflected in the 10-Year Health Plan.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift.

In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

As part of the Spring Statement, Government announced a £3.25 billion Transformation Fund to drive efficiencies across government and save money later in the Parliament, and set out how this would be allocated over the Spending Review process.

The Spending Review is underway, and details will be announced on 11 June 2025.