Written questions by Goldman.

Whether he plans to increase funding for community pharmacies.

Funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework has increased to £3.073 billion for 2025/26. This represented the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.Decisions on funding for community pharmacies beyond 2025/26 are subject to the current Spending Review. As is custom and practice, the Department will consult Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to the reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors later this year.

Whether he plans to ensure annual health checks for all adults with cerebral palsy.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on care and support for adults with cerebral palsy, which is available at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng119The guidance recommends that people with cerebral palsy should have an annual review of their clinical and functional needs, carried out by a healthcare professional with expertise in neurodisabilities.Whilst NICE guidelines represent best practice, they are not mandatory, although the Government expects healthcare commissioners to take the guidelines fully into account in designing services that meet the needs of their local population, and to work towards their implementation over time.

When he expects the NHS-commissioned report on community pharmacy funding to be published.

NHS England commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake an independent economic analysis of National Health Service pharmacy funding in 2024. This work is nearing completion and will be published.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of standardising of NHS IT systems to help increase levels of efficiency.

Interoperability between IT systems would improve the quality of care and safety for patients, as well as enabling better informed clinical and care decision-making, by allowing for information to be shared easily, in real time, between organisations that...

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a hardship fund for parents of children who have been diagnosed with chronic illnesses and have been hospitalised for more t

The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in 2022, contains commitments which have not yet passed their delivery dates, including the commitment to reform the Mental Health Act.We do not plan to create new actions in a new action plan while th...

If she will make an assessment of the adequacy of levels of carers pay.

Adult social care is a historically low paid sector, as most care workers are paid at or just above the National Living Wage. The recently introduced Employment Rights Bill aims to address this by establishing a framework for Fair Pay Agreements, through ...

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of an NHS-funded salaried training route to becoming a school counsellor.

We have no plans to do so, as there is already an existing National Health Service-funded salaried training route for education based mental health practitioners, which enables them to work across education and healthcare to provide mental health support ...

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the previous Government's directive not to prescribe diabetes medication for non-licensed purposes on the availability of insulin stock; and w

There are ongoing global supply issues with some medications used to treat diabetes, and we continue to work closely with all manufacturers of insulin and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists to improve the situation and ensure alternatives remain av...