Spending Round 2019: Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

Table 2.1: Department of Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care’s resource budget will rise by 3.1% in real terms. This settlement reaffirms the government’s commitment to health and social care, giving the NHS a cash increase of £33.9 billion a year by 2023-24 compared to 2018-19 budgets, as well as boosting other vital budgets to deliver better health outcomes for patients and the public.

The settlement includes:

• a 3.4% real terms increase in the Health Education England (HEE) budget. This will include an additional £150 million for Continuing Professional Development, providing a £1,000 central training budget for each nurse, midwife and allied health professional over three years, as well as increased funding for wider education and training budgets to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan;

• a real terms increase to the Public Health Grant budget, which will ensure local authorities can continue to provide prevention and public health interventions;

• additional funding to deliver the government’s commitment to upgrade outdated facilities and equipment in 20 hospitals – sharing an £854 million pot of new funding.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; and

• the government will invest £250 million in artificial intelligence, including £78 million in 2020-21, to help solve some of healthcare’s toughest challenges, including earlier cancer detection and discovering new treatments.

For social care, the Local Government settlement contains an additional £1 billion for adult and children’s social care. The government will also consult on a 2% precept that will enable councils to access a further £0.5 billion for adult social care. This funding will support local authorities to meet rising demand and continue to stabilise the social care system. Separately, the government remains committed to putting adult social care on a fairer and more sustainable footing and will bring forward proposals in due course.

The DHSC will receive a new multi-year capital settlement at the next capital review. This will look to deliver a smarter, more strategic long-term approach to the country’s health infrastructure, with investment focused on local areas where the need is greatest. The plan will include capital to build new hospitals, modernise diagnostics and technology, and help eradicate current critical safety issues in the NHS estate.