Medical Equipment: Children

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, meets regularly with external sector partners on a variety of issues.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) in England are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, including for disability equipment. Each ICB must have an executive lead for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), who will support the board to perform its functions effectively in the interests of children and young people with SEND.

We expect ICBs to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In 2022, the NICE published the guidance, Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs: integrated service delivery and organisation across health, social care and education, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng213/chapter/Recommendations-on-service-organisation-integration-and-commissioning

Local authorities are responsible for providing social care services for disabled children, which can include specialist equipment. The guidance on supporting disabled children and their carers can be found at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/669e7501ab418ab055592a7b/Working_together_to_safeguard_children_2023.pdf

Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from clinical commissioning groups, now ICBs, on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. NHS England is taking several steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of National Health Service wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving wheelchair equipment. Data on the length of time taken to provide other equipment for disabled children is not collected centrally.