asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will fund the Gold Standards Framework central team work on improving care of the terminally ill in the community from 1 September; and, if so, at what level.[HL7239]

The Government have provided £12 million of funding for the end-of-life care (EoLC) programme, to be spread out over the three years from 2004 to 2007. In 2006-07, the funding has been included as part of a block sum for strategic health authorities to manage. This incorporates funding for the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) central team, the GSF being a key strand of the EoLC programme. To ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved, the block sum will be accompanied by a service level agreement.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What they will do to maintain work on improving care of the dying if redundancies have to be made in the central office of the Gold Standards Framework, which works to improve care of the terminally ill.[HL7240]

The three-year end-of-life care programme to train generalist staff in the principles of palliative care, of which the Gold Standards Framework team is a part, is due to run until 2007. Additionally, the Government have recently announced the development of a strategy on end-of-life care. The strategy will be the means by which the manifesto commitment on palliative care and the programme of action on end-of-life care set out in the White Paper Our health, our care, our say will be delivered.