PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Chronic Illnesses (3 September 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of social outcomes contracts in supporting people with long-term health conditions.

Asked by:
Dr Kieran Mullan (Conservative)

Whilst no formal assessment has been made, NHS England and Improvement has been promoting the idea of outcomes-based commissioning of clinical services for some years, while acknowledging the difficulty of defining and measuring achievement of outcomes in a healthcare context. The National Tariff Payment System for secondary and tertiary care services has been encouraging commissioners and providers to incentivise achievement of long-term outcomes and management of long-term conditions by moving away from a purely episodic approach to a blended payment approach for services.

The Long Term Plan also commits to expanding personal health budgets up to 200 000 people by 2023/2024 giving people greater choice and control over how care is planned and delivered. Personal health budgets enable individual commissioning of care to meet identified health needs based on the individuals own identified health and wellbeing outcomes.

Answered by:
Maggie Throup (Conservative)
15 November 2021