NHS England Revised Financial Directions 2024-25 and 2025-26
- I am revising the 2024-25 financial directions to NHS England made on 26 March 2024 and setting the 2025-26 financial directions to NHS England. The amendment to the total revenue resource use limit for 2024-25 has been agreed with NHS England as required under section 223D(4) of the National Health Service Act 2006.The directions reflect recent funding settlements with HM Treasury and include a number of transfers of funding between NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. The 2024-25 revisions include additional funding received in-year for the NHS pay awards and other in-year pressures, including elective activity. The 2025-26 total is as set out by HM Treasury at the autumn Budget, but with some additional transfers between NHS England and DHSC. They will be published on www.gov.uk. The existing NHS mandate remains unchanged by these publications.[HCWS569]
Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Grant
- On 31 March, the Government published the targeted drug and alcohol treatment and recovery grant funding for local authorities in England for 2025-26.Drug and alcohol addiction costs the country billions of pounds in additional health and criminal justice expenditure.Dedicated investment in high-quality treatment and recovery services will reduce crime and save lives. This will benefit people who are experiencing drug and alcohol addiction, their families, and communities, many of whom are vulnerable with complex needs. Through access to individual placement and support employment support, we can help people to sustain their recovery and local employers to recruit from an untapped pool of talent.This funding is an important component of our plan for change in health, through which we will build an NHS fit for the future, tackle the underlying drivers of ill health and health inequalities, and deliver three fundamental shifts: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital and from sickness to prevention.It contributes to the safer streets mission by reducing crime and re-offending and funding services that continue to provide support for people who are sleeping rough who have a substance misuse problem. It also supports the opportunity mission by increasing support and early intervention for children and young people’s substance issues as well as reducing the adverse childhood experience of parental substance misuse.Allocations will see £310 million go directly to councils to build on their vital work of improving outcomes for people who need treatment and recovery support.
NHS Pension Scheme: Remediable Service Statements
- In 2014 and 2015, the previous Government reformed public service pension schemes with the intent to better balance the interests of public service workers, employers and taxpayers. When the reforms were introduced, they provided “transitional protections” which allowed members who were closer to retirement age to remain in the previous “legacy” schemes rather than move to the “reformed” schemes. In December 2018, the Court of Appeal found that these protections in the judicial and firefighters pension schemes gave rise to unlawful discrimination—the McCloud and Sargeant case.Governing legislation—the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022— was enacted to remedy the discrimination identified by the courts. A core element of the remedy is providing affected members with a choice of pension benefits, legacy or reformed, for the period the discrimination had effect. Schemes must provide affected members with remediable service statements which set out how this choice will affect the value of their pension benefits. Members who have already retired must be provided with a remediable service statement to allow them to make their benefit choice retrospectively.The governing legislation requires that a statement is provided to each affected member on or before 1 April 2025 or “by such later day as the scheme manager considers reasonable in all the circumstances in the case of a particular member or a particular class of member.” Today, I am updating the House on the delivery of remediable service statements for affected NHS pension scheme members.The production of remediable service statements involves a complex and challenging programme of work. Technical complexities, some of which extend beyond the NHS pension scheme, have affected delivery timelines for statements.
Community Pharmacy Funding 2024-25 and 2025-26
- I am delighted to announce we have now concluded our consultation on funding for community pharmacy for 2024-25 and 2025-26. We have agreed with Community Pharmacy England that in 2025-26 the funding will increase to £3.073 billion, an increase of £375 million compared to 2024-25. This means, in addition to other changes, that on a like- for-like basis the value of the funding will increase by 15.0% compared to 2024-25, compared to 5.8% growth to the budget of the NHS as a whole. This is on top of a consolidated increase in 2024-25 of 4.1%.This investment will enable us to embed and build on the range of clinical services that we commission from community pharmacy as we seek to improve access through reform and better use the skills of pharmacy teams to keep people well in their communities.In addition, we have agreed to allow pharmacies to keep £193 million of funding that was paid to them primarily over the pandemic period to support the vital supply of medicines. This will bring more certainty of funding for contractors and support pharmacies in purchasing the medication prescribed for patients.We know that community pharmacy has been neglected. We are determined to work with the sector to get it back on its feet and delivering for patients. This agreement with CPE will provide much needed investment and start to stabilise the community pharmacy sector. It marks a show of confidence in this Government to deliver the left shift—moving care from hospital to community, and moving from sickness to prevention.I would like to pay tribute to CPE’s committee. I am grateful to them for working constructively and at pace with officials to agree how best to use this significant new investment to support the sector, and to continue to provide services to patients across the country. We have prioritised patient access to medication, support and advice. We are also embedding and extending the clinical service offer. We will provide additional support for people newly prescribed medication for depression, as well as offering access to NHS provided emergency hormonal contraception across the country for the first time.