Health and social care
The government is committed to ensuring quick access to quality
healthcare for those who need it, and to giving every older
person the dignity and security they deserve.
To support this, the Spending Round reaffirms the five-year
settlement for the NHS with an additional
£33.9 billion more per year by 2023-24 compared to 2018-19
budgets. It also confirms:
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an increase to the Health Education England (HEE) budget, including an
additional £150 million for Continuing Professional
Development, providing a £1,000 central training budget over
three years for each nurse, midwife and allied health
professional, as well as increased funding for wider
education and training budgets to support delivery of
the NHS Long Term Plan;
-
additional funding to deliver the government’s commitment to
upgrade outdated facilities and equipment in 20 hospitals –
sharing an £854 million pot of new funding. This is alongside
a £1 billion boost to NHS capital spending in
2019-20 to allow existing upgrades to proceed and to tackle
the most urgent infrastructure projects;
-
a real terms increase to the Public Health Grant budget,
which will ensure local authorities can continue to provide
prevention and public health interventions;
-
£250 million of investment in artificial intelligence from
2020-21 to help solve some of healthcare’s toughest
challenges, including earlier cancer detection and
discovering new treatments; and
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an additional £1 billion for adult and children’s social
care. In addition, the government will consult on a 2% Adult
Social Care precept that will enable councils to access a
further £0.5 billion. This funding will support local
authorities to meet rising demand and continue to stabilise
the social care system.
