My Lords, the two amendments in this group, Amendments 213A and 312I, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, look to ensure, as she explained, that local planning authorities should consider the health and social care facilities needed for their area when considering future development. I am sure that we can agree that it is important to
ensure that we have the right health and social care facilities in place where they are needed: that is why this is already a consideration as part of planning policy, guidance and legislation.
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that when setting strategic policies, local planning authorities should set out an overall strategy for the pattern, scale and design quality of places, and make sufficient provision for community facilities, including for health infrastructure. The Government have set out in planning guidance how the need for health facilities, as well as other health and well-being impacts, can be considered as part of the plan-making and decision-making process. Plan-making bodies will need to discuss their emerging strategy for development at an early stage with directors of public health, NHS England, local health and well-being boards, and sustainability and transformation partnerships/integrated care systems, depending on the local context and the implications of development on health and care infrastructure. The National Planning Policy Framework must, as a matter of law, be given regard to in preparing the development plan, and is a material consideration in planning decisions.
We have also set out, in the consultation on reforms to national planning policy, that we are intending to undertake a wider review of the NPPF to support the programme of changes to the planning system, and, as part of this, we will consider updates needed to reflect the importance of better environmental and health outcomes. In addition, as part of the new infrastructure levy system, local authorities will be required to prepare an infrastructure delivery strategy. This will set out the local planning authority’s priorities for spending levy proceeds.
Section 204Q(11) requires levy regulations to determine the consultation process and procedures that must be followed when preparing an infrastructure delivery strategy. This can include which bodies must be consulted in order for charging authorities to determine their infrastructure priorities for spending the levy. Such bodies could include integrated care boards to ensure that health infrastructure is considered in the preparation of the infrastructure delivery strategy. We can also make provision that integrated care boards must assist charging authorities with the preparation of an infrastructure delivery strategy. That is Clause 93.
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I do recognise fully from my time as a Health Minister the importance of palliative care in the range of NHS services, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, will remember that, as part of the Health and Care Act 2022, we added palliative care services to the list of services that an integrated care board must commission, promoting a more consistent national approach and supporting commissioners in prioritising palliative and end-of-life care. NHS England has made available a number of resources, including statutory guidance and service specifications, to support commissioners in fulfilling this duty. NHS England has also made funding available to establish seven palliative and end-of-life care strategic clinical networks. These networks support commissioners in the delivery of outstanding clinical and personalised care for people in the last
year of life and aim to reduce local variation. NHS England has implemented an accelerated development programme to build a community of practice and develop commissioning mentors, supported by a number of supporting guides and documents, such as the commissioning and investment framework.
I hope what I have been able to say is helpful to the Committee. I do take on board the comments made by the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock. There is not time to have a full-scale health debate. I have a wealth of information here on what is now going on to ensure that, for example, primary care is beefed up across the country; we have set out plans to recruit 26,000 additional primary care staff, and there are special incentives to attract doctors to underdoctored areas which are already proving to be a success.
In the field of social care we have made available up to £7.5 billion in additional funding over two years, which is a historically enormous increase. On the people front, the noble Baroness may recall that in the People at the Heart of Care White Paper, we set out a 10-year vision for adult social care that includes workforce reforms and funding for hundreds of thousands of training places, which of course we all agree we need. So there is a great deal going on, and I think the levers are there at a local level as well as a national level to make sure that we are not legislating for levelling up in a vacuum, as it were, in this field.
I hope I will have persuaded the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, that her amendment is not necessary, as these important matters are already being considered and addressed through national planning policy, associated planning guidance and indeed legislation.