Speeches by Kinnock.

“I think once every two months I meet the head of ADASS and the head of the LGA jointly, and BCF always comes up. There is good practice. I recently visited a hospital in Bradford where they had a delayed discharge team made up of a combination of hospital staff and local authority staff sitting in the same office in th…”

“Let me say two things. You raised a really important point about whether the money is going to the communities and parts of the country that need it the most. We are looking at the funding formula—the core allocation formula—for ICBs, to ensure that it is aligned with socioeconomic need. Another example of that is the …”

“Yes, absolutely. Hospices, on average, receive about 30% of their funding from the state—from the NHS. They are a really important partner for us, but they are a kind of hybrid model of some state funding and what they raise through charity. Therefore, we see them as an integral part of what we want to do on commission…”

“Yes.”

“We are definitely setting the system a challenge to work more effectively, but our view is that by doing strategic commissioning more effectively, getting a better understanding of the population’s health needs, creating a robust strategy and bringing all the key partners together—including the voluntary sector like ho…”

“I will be absolutely up front on this. We have a capital budget right across the Department of Health and Social Care. Where there are opportunities for spotting an underspend in a particular area of activity it is my job to go in, roll up my sleeves and fight like hell for my portfolio. A top priority for me in doing …”

“I would never put it in such undiplomatic terms.”

“The £100 million—”

“It is about early engagement and planning—all the way from primary and community care through to the trust and then to the local authority. It is about how we make it clearer that the focus has to be on getting that early engagement, and then getting the Better Care Fund—it is a big fund, £9 billion—to deliver improvem…”

“I am very happy to do that. We are looking at reforming the Better Care Fund, which plays an absolutely crucial role in bringing local authorities together with the health system to improve delayed discharge, which is a massive challenge that the system is facing. I have been working on that with my officials, and with…”

“One of the crucial issues is that the data on inequality of access is not very robust. The policy research unit within the NIHR is doing a deep dive on inequality and trying to give us a more robust dataset around geographic inequality, socioeconomic inequality and inequality along ethnic lines. The first answer to you…”

“It is a really good example of why we need those national, coherent and consistent standards, approaches and goals. That is precisely because, even if you are a children’s hospice and deal with two or even three different ICBs, you are going to be getting a very similar approach from each of those, rather than the very…”

“I wasn’t aware that we are planning to do that.”

“Yes, I think it will have to be. It is clearly an area that needs more work.”

“I am looking at Sarah, but I am assuming that—”

“We recognise that that voice needs to be heard. Obviously, local authorities play a crucial role in that. We have to ensure that local authorities are around the table as we develop this modern service framework. We also want to look at ways in which care workers can be more empowered. We are looking at delegation to e…”

“Yes, absolutely. There are several key players in the children’s palliative and end-of-life care sector, including, of course, Together for Short Lives, which have a strong voice in the MSF development process.”

“It is an excellent question. When you have such a complex system, accountability is one of the most difficult things to achieve. For example, looking at the way the CQC works, if there is a local authority that is not doing what it should be in adult social care, it will go into special measures. It gets a “requires im…”

“Every year, ICBs have to provide officials, and ultimately Ministers, with a report on how they have discharged their functions, based on the agreed targets that they have, the quality of patient outcomes and the quality of access—there is a huge panoply of targets and agreed outcomes that we have with the ICBs. Offici…”

“Yes, because the strategic commissioning piece of the MSF is, by definition, about tackling or improving services for underserved areas. What you are saying is, with the finite resource we have, where should that resource be prioritised? It is absolutely clear that it should be prioritised on underserved areas, whether…”