Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted
Departmental annual report shows significant omissions on preventative and end-of-life care.
Recommendation
The NHS Long Term Plan states that ill health prevention helps the public to stay healthy, as well as moderating demands on the NHS. The Department recognised in its 2023–24 Annual Report that there “is still much work to do to make a shift towards prevention in the NHS”.43 We observed that, with the exception of a very short paragraph, the Department’s 2023–24 Annual Report does not include a section on preventative work, or information on outcomes arising from this spend. We asked the Department to ensure that next year’s accounts had more importance paid to prevention, which it agreed to.44 We also commented that it was difficult to find information in its Annual Report and Accounts on how much the Department was spending on palliative and end–of–life care, or what outcomes this spend was delivering, which felt like a “huge omission”. The Department was unable to provide a figure for this spending on our session, but told us that it would “definitely change that for next year … [and] add more prominence to it”.45
Government Response Summary
The government commits to improving its 2024-25 Annual Report and Accounts to include more information on preventative work and spending/outcomes for palliative and end-of-life care, and will provide an update to the Committee by September 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendations. Target implementation date: September 2025 2.2 The department is committed to the continuous improvement of its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) to ensure the content is as transparent and informative as possible, both in the specific areas to which the Committee refers and in other emerging areas of public and parliamentary interest. 2.3 The department plans to cover the areas listed in recommendations 2a and 2b in its 2024-25 ARA. The department will update the Committee on progress alongside its update to the Committee on recommendation 5 in September.