Response from Ashley Dalton MP received 24th April 2025.
- Long Covid Kids
- May 6
- 4 min read
Updated: May 7
On March 26, 2025, we composed an Open Letter to The Rt Hon Wes Streeting and Ashley Dalton MP. On the 24th April 2025 we received a response from Ashley Dalton, which you can read below.
Dear Ms McFarland and Professor Faghy,
Thank you for your correspondence of 26 March to Wes Streeting about long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). I appreciate your concerns and would like to assure you that improving health outcomes for people in the UK who live with long-term conditions is a key part of the Government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future. We want a society where everyone receives high-quality, compassionate care that also supports their families and carers.
We know that long COVID is a complex condition, with a wide range of symptoms that, in the worst cases, can be debilitating. The Government is committed to ensuring those with long COVID have timely access to a diagnosis and appropriate treatment and services.
Whilst ME/CFS and long COVID can be similar in presentation, they are distinct conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) currently recommends separate pathways for the assessment, treatment and management of ME/CFS and the long-term effects of COVID-19. NICE has also published guidance on assessing a person presenting with a blackout or syncope.
The NHS in England has invested significantly to support people with long COVID. This includes setting up specialist post-COVID services nationwide, developing digital selfmanagement tools, and ensuring general practice teams are equipped to support people affected by the condition. The specialist services assess people with long COVID and direct them to appropriate support and treatment. GPs will assess patients that have COVID-19 symptoms lasting longer than four weeks and refer them to a long-COVID service where appropriate.
There is specific advice for GPs to manage long COVID. Patients should be managed according to current clinical guidance, such as that published by NICE, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, the Government does expect clinicians and healthcare commissioners to take them fully into account.
Since April 2024, the commissioning of post-COVID services has been the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). To support this, NHS England published guidance on the commissioning, requirements and oversight of these services by ICBs in England. This can be found at www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-guidance-for-post-covidservices-for-adults-children-and-young-people.
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It and the Medical Research Council (MRC) are committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes and consequences of, and treatment for, long COVID and are exploring the next steps for long-COVID research.
NHS England has recently completed a ‘stocktake’ of post-COVID services to obtain an overview of commissioning, contracting, access, activity and outcomes. The findings confirmed significant variation in the provision of care across England. NHS England will continue to support ICBs to improve service quality, ensure equitable access to care and achieve consistency across the system.
While no additional funding has been attached to the ME/CFS Delivery Plan at this time, additional funding to support those with ME/CFS may be secured in future Spending Review rounds. There is also a need to use current government and NHS funding better to improve patient outcomes and experiences.
We also intend to provide additional support to ME/CFS researchers to develop high quality funding applications and access existing NIHR and MRC research funding. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. The upcoming ME/CFS delivery plan will outline the additional support we will offer to the research community to increase the volume and quality of applications and, therefore, increase the allocation of funding to this area.
Regarding education, local authorities should work with schools to support pupils with medical conditions to attend full-time. Where pupils would not receive a suitable education in a mainstream school because of their health needs, the local authority has a duty to make other arrangements. Statutory guidance for local authorities on education for children with health needs who cannot attend school sets out that they should be ready to make arrangements under this duty when it is clear that a child will be away from school for 15 days or more because of health needs (whether consecutive or cumulative across the school year).
For people facing complex barriers to attendance, schools are asked to have sensitive conversations with children and families, and work with them to put support in place for their individual needs. This expectation is also set out in the Working together to improve school attendance guidance. This support may include reasonable adjustments for pupils with disabilities or support for pupils for whom mental health issues are affecting their attendance. Schools have been reminded that strategies to increase attendance should take a ‘support first’ approach in all instances.
We have committed to develop a ten-year health plan to deliver an NHS fit for the future. The plan will deliver three big shifts, from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. More tests and scans delivered in the community, better joint working between services, and greater use of apps and wearable technology will all help people manage their long-term conditions closer to home.
A central part of the ten-year plan will be our workforce and how we ensure that we train and provide the staff, technology and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients in all our communities. This summer, a refreshed NHS long-term workforce plan will be published, which will contribute to building the transformed health service over the next decade so that patients are treated on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places and with the right skills to provide the care that patients need, when they need it.
We recognise that there is more to be done, but I hope this reply reassures you that we are taking our response to supporting those living with long term conditions, seriously.
Yours sincerely, ASHLEY DALTON
