Health and Social Care Secretary sets out plan for patients with new funding to bolster social care over winter

Our Plan for Patients will inject £500 million of additional funding into adult social care to help people get out of hospitals and into social care support. The Plan was unveiled by the Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister today.

In her first major intervention in her new role, Thérèse Coffey announced a package of measures to ensure the public receives the best possible care this winter and next. The Adult Social Care Discharge Fund will help speed up the safe discharge of patients from hospital this winter to free up beds as well as helping to retain and recruit more care workers. With 13,000 patients in beds who should be receiving care in the community, this will improve the flow in emergency departments and help reduce ambulance delays.

The plan also sets out interventions to improve access to general practice appointments, with the expectation that everyone who needs one should get an appointment at a GP practice within two weeks – and that the patients with the most urgent needs should be seen within the same day.

As well as more support staff, an enhanced role for pharmacists and new telephone systems, changes will also be made to NHS pension rules to retain more experienced NHS clinicians and remove the barriers to staff returning from retirement, increasing capacity for appointments and other services.

This includes extending retirement flexibilities to allow retired and partially retired staff to continue to return to work or increase their working commitments without having payment of their pension benefits reduced or suspended, and fixing the unintended impacts of inflation, so senior clinicians aren’t taxed more than is necessary.

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Thérèse Coffey said:

“Patients and those who draw on care and support are my top priority and we will help them receive care as quickly and conveniently as possible.

“That is why we are publishing Our Plan for Patients, which will help empower and inform people to live healthier lives, while boosting the NHS’ performance and productivity.

“It sets out a range of commitments for our health service, ensuring we create smoother pathways for patients in all parts of health and care.”

Alongside the government’s plan to ensure patients get the best possible care, the Health and Social Care Secretary called for a “national endeavour” to support the NHS. This includes encouraging more volunteering across the health service, as well as exploring strengthening how we use volunteers, such as supporting NHS ambulances in the areas of greatest need.

Local health and care partners will be able to decide how best to use the social care funding to improve hospital discharge, and to retain and recruit social care staff. 

Funding of £15 million this year will help increase international recruitment of care workers. The funding will enable local areas to support care providers with activities such as visa processing, accommodation and pastoral support for international recruits. This will complement a national domestic recruitment campaign, which will launch shortly.

The Health and Social Care Secretary acknowledged the scale of the challenges facing the NHS in the wake of the pandemic and Our Plan for Patients builds on the NHS Winter Plan, including the roll-out of Covid boosters and flu jabs already underway to help protect the most vulnerable. The plan sets out actions to ensure the best possible care for patients under each of her A, B, C and D priority areas - ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists.

Prime Minister Liz Truss said:

"On the steps of Downing Street this month, I pledged that one of my earliest priorities as Prime Minister would be to put our health and care system on a firm footing.

“These measures are the first part of that plan and will help the country through the winter and beyond. Ultimately my mission in government is to grow our economy, because that is the best way to support the NHS and social care system and ensure patients are receiving the frontline services they deserve."

Notes to Editors:

Some of the priority actions being taken include:

Ambulances:

• Every hospital and ambulance trust having a plan to reduce long ambulance handover delays so they can get back on the road more quickly, alongside improvements to the directory of services so 111 and ambulance services can direct people to the most appropriate service and ensure only those with an emergency attend A&E.
• The NHS will deliver on their winter plan with 4,800 call handlers in NHS 111 and 2,500 in 999 so 111 calls can be answered more quickly and ambulances can be dispatched as fast as possible. There will also be the equivalent of 7,000 more beds across the country - including 2,500 beds with remote monitoring from patients’ homes, to reduce pressure on hospitals and speed up ambulance handovers.

Backlogs:

• Delivering up to 160 community diagnostic centres, with 92 currently operating, to help deliver 9 million additional tests, scans and checks a year by March 2025.
• Trusts will continue to prioritise patients who have been waiting longest and those needing treatment most urgently, including for cancer.

Care:

• The government will invest £500 million to support discharge from hospital into the community and bolster the social care workforce, to free up beds for patients who need them. Ahead of this winter the government will also launch the next phase of the national adult social care recruitment campaign.
• Funding of £15 million this year will help increase international recruitment of care workers. The funding will help support local areas with visa processing, accommodation and pastoral support.

Doctors

• Changes to NHS pension rules will retain more experienced NHS staff and remove the barriers to staff returning from retirement. New retirement flexibilities will include a partial retirement option for staff to draw on their pension and continue building it while working more flexibly, allowing retired staff to build more pension if returning to service. The government will fix the unintended impacts of inflation, so senior clinicians aren’t taxed more than is necessary – it will amend the revaluation date in the NHS Pension Scheme to reduce the risk that NHS staff face annual allowance tax charges as a result of high inflation.
• We also intend to allow retired and partially retired staff to continue to return to work or increase their working commitments, without having the payment of their pension benefits reduced or suspended. To do so we will extend the temporary retire and return easements to 31 March 2025.
• By 2023 all Trusts will also be required to offer pensions recycling, meaning employer pension contributions can be offered in cash instead of as an addition to pension funds, helping retain senior staff who have reached the lifetime allowance for tax-free pension saving.

Dentists

• The government will address variation in dental care, including ‘dental deserts’, through working with the General Dental Council to make it easier for dentists who trained overseas to practice in the NHS, requiring practices to publicly state whether they are taking new patients. Further changes will enable those contractors that can deliver more NHS care to do so by releasing funding from contractors that consistently underdeliver.

• Our Plan for Patients is published here: Our plan for patients - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Yesterday’s press release can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/health-and-social-care-secretary-to-set-out-new-plan-for-patients-and-call-on-public-to-play-a-part-in-national-endeavour