Health and Care Bill Introduced to the House of Commons on 6 July 2021
DHSC Press release 6 July 2021
The Bill will help deliver ‘world-class care for patients’ by building on the NHS’ own proposals for reform to make it less bureaucratic, more accountable, and more integrated in the wake of COVID-19.
Key measures of the Bill include:
- The NHS and local government coming together to plan health and care services around their patients’ needs, and quickly implement innovative solutions to problems which would normally take years to fix, including moving services out of hospitals and into the community, focusing on preventative healthcare.
- The development of a new procurement regime for the NHS and public health procurement, informed by public consultation, to reduce bureaucracy on commissioners and providers alike, and reduce the need for competitive tendering where it adds limited or no value. This will mean staff can spend more time on patients and providing care, and local NHS services will have more power to act in the best interests of their communities.
- A package of measures to deliver on specific needs in the social care sector. This will improve oversight and accountability in the delivery of services through new assurance and data sharing measures in social care, update the legal framework to enable person-centred models of hospital discharge, and introduce improved powers for the Secretary of State to directly make payments to adult social care providers where required.
- Supporting the introduction of new requirements about calorie labelling on food and drink packaging and the advertising of junk food before the 9pm watershed to level up health across the country. The pandemic has shown the impact of inequalities on public health outcomes and the need for government to act.
Explanatory Notes explain what each part of the Health and Care Bill will mean in practice; provide background information on the development of policy; and provide additional information on how the Health and Care Bill will affect existing legislation in this area.
Health
and Care Bill factsheets, DHSC 19 July 2021
A series of factsheets containing details on the measures in
the Health and Care Bill 2021. They explain why they are needed and what impact
they will have. Including Competition, Hospital discharge, Integrated Care
Bords and local health and care systems, integration measures, Better Care Fund.
NHS England and NHS Improvement’s direct commissioning functions [letter], NHE/I 22 July 2021
Letter from NHS E/I CCO on the transfer of direct commissioning functions from NHSE/I to ICSs.
National Audit Office 9 August 2021
The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee carried out an inquiry into the proposals set out in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) White Paper, Integration and innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all. This evidence submission highlights the main risks and opportunities the National Audit Office sees in the White Paper. It believes the DHSC and the NHS must pay particular attention to five areas: achieving integration at the local level; financial sustainability; wider system reform; securing change in adult social care; and national-level governance.
Health and Care Bill: combined impact assessmentsDHSC 13 September 2021
The Health and Care Bill was introduced to Parliament on 6 July 2021 and the legislation aims to build on work to make the health and care system more integrated and accountable. This collection of documents examines the costs, benefits, risks and mitigations of the proposed changes.
Comments;
Health and Care Bill 2021-22
House of Commons Library Research Briefing 12 July 2021- This paper explains the Bill's provisions and includes comment and reactions from NHS England, health and Social Care Committee, NHS Providers, Health Foundation, NHS Confederation.
