Queen's Speech: Public Health Bill

Public Health Bill

Amongst a variety of measures to reform the National Health Service will be the creation of a new public health service, led by the Department of Health, which is intended to weight health funding towards the most disadvantaged areas through the payment of a health premium and make it a requirement of local NHS organisations to improve the health of their residents, in conjunction with local authorities, voluntary organisations and local business to deliver this. Budgets will held at local level and local NHS organisations will be paid according the outcomes they achieve.

Social care (non-legislative measures)

The government is to establish an independent commission to examine funding for long-term care, with the brief to ensure that there is a fair partnership between the state and the individual. The commission will report within a year. In the meantime, the government will “take steps” to ensure that all councils offer personal budgets to older and disabled people, to encourage more preventative support to be provided and to enable more join working between health and social services teams to allow more people to remain living at home.