Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what they mean by “enhanced parent–infant relationship support” in the updated Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance; and how equivalent support will be defined, delivered, and funded in local authorities that are not in receipt of that programme funding.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance, we have a set a series of expectations for local authorities to support them to design their local service offer. The enhanced perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support is intended to build on existing provision within the system. Local authorities are empowering the workforce to be able to confidently identify and address need. They are providing high-quality support in a range of ways, such as virtually, one-to-one, and through peer support, and working across the system to strengthen referral pathways.
Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we commitment to rolling out Healthy Babies to match expansion of Best Start Family Hubs. While we do not expect local authorities who are not receiving funding to provide equivalent support to those that are, through the guidance we have set ambitions that we encourage them to work towards, which will lay the foundations for roll out. This includes equipping staff to offer emotional and wellbeing support, promote early attachment and connect families to appropriate services.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed national maternity and neonatal action plan will include specific measures to assess and support parent–infant relationships, particularly in the period prior to discharge from maternity and neonatal units.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will translate the recommendations of Baroness Amos’ independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal care into a national action plan. The investigation’s final report will be published in June. While its final recommendations cannot be pre-empted, the taskforce’s terms of reference state that all aspects of maternity and neonatal care will be considered when developing its national action plan.
More widely, we are investing £200 million into the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme to strengthen Healthy Babies support in the critical 1,001 days, giving families access to enhanced perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship, and infant feeding services, to help build the foundations for every baby’s emotional, social, and cognitive development.
On improving neonatal outreach, the NHS England Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, published in January 2026 and available on the NHS.UK website, helps integrated care boards and local trusts optimise maternal and infant health. It requires commissioners to integrate neonatal and community care, reduce health inequalities, and recommends robust clinical handovers between neonatal units and local general practices and health visiting.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed national maternity and neonatal action plan will include provisions to ensure continuity of care between discharge from neonatal units and community services, including health visiting and family hubs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will translate the recommendations of Baroness Amos’ independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal care into a national action plan. The investigation’s final report will be published in June. While its final recommendations cannot be pre-empted, the taskforce’s terms of reference state that all aspects of maternity and neonatal care will be considered when developing its national action plan.
More widely, we are investing £200 million into the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme to strengthen Healthy Babies support in the critical 1,001 days, giving families access to enhanced perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship, and infant feeding services, to help build the foundations for every baby’s emotional, social, and cognitive development.
On improving neonatal outreach, the NHS England Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, published in January 2026 and available on the NHS.UK website, helps integrated care boards and local trusts optimise maternal and infant health. It requires commissioners to integrate neonatal and community care, reduce health inequalities, and recommends robust clinical handovers between neonatal units and local general practices and health visiting.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme will recommend the adoption of holistic family centre frameworks, such as Ei Smart, as part of efforts to support babies and families with the transition from neonatal units to family hubs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2026, we published Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies guidance, setting out a series of expectations to enable local authorities to design their support offer for families tailored to local need. While the guidance is not prescriptive about what provision local authorities should introduce, it sets expectations that targeted support should be provided for families facing health inequalities, including those who have required neonatal care.
Some local authorities are already using programme funding to focus on families with babies who have had a period in neonatal care. For example, in Lincolnshire the Family and Baby project has been introduced which operates from neonatal units and provides early, relationship-based support to improve attachment, infant development, and parental wellbeing.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will include (1) representatives of families with lived experience of neonatal care, and (2) professionals with expertise in ‘baby voice’ who are able to represent the baby’s perspective in the formation and prioritisation of services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Family voices are key to the work of the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce. Families with a wide range of lived experience of maternity and neonatal care are represented on both the taskforce and within the Expert Reference Groups (ERGs) that are supporting the taskforce’s work.
Membership of the taskforce currently includes a representative from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, providing expertise in neonatal care. There are also currently several professionals with backgrounds in neonatology on the Workforce, Clinical and Academic ERG. These include Dr Adam Smith-Collins, a Consultant Neonatologist of the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Professor James Boardman, a Professor of Neonatal Medicine of the University of Edinburgh, Dr Jideofor Menakaya, a Consultant Neonatologist Paediatrician of the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Jonathan Cusack, a Consultant Neonatologist of the Leicester Neonatal Service, and Shazia Hoodbhoy, a Consultant Neonatologist of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Armed Forces Covenant extends to Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a unique asset to Government, which we continue to invest in, working closely across Government to ensure the seafarers who work for the RFA have the employment conditions that reflect their essential work.
The Armed Forces Covenant Legal Duty extends to members of the Regular forces and Reserve forces, as well as Veterans and their families (including the bereaved). Each of these four groups is specifically defined within the relevant legislation.
In the spirit of the Covenant, organisations who have signed the Armed Forces Covenant pledge are encouraged to consider the needs of other groups within the wider Armed Forces community if individual circumstances merit it. This includes members of the RFA that have seen duty on defined military operations.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on Royal Navy operational capabilities of the strike action being undertaken by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary remains essential in supporting operations alongside the Royal Navy and our global allies. They continue to meet their operational commitments, and we are dedicated to resolving this dispute through ongoing dialogue with their trade unions.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they give to the working hours of Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel when calculating pay for those staff; and what assessment they have made of whether Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel remuneration meets minimum hourly wage levels.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the noble Lady to the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Veterans and People (Louise Sandher-Jones), in the House of Commons on 3 March 2026 to the hon. Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) in response to Question 115299.
James MacCleary
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has assessed the adequacy of National Minimum Wage compliance for Royal Fleet Auxiliary roles.115299
Answer
Louise Sandher-Jones
Royal Fleet Auxillary salaries are benchmarked against comparable roles across the wider maritime industry to ensure competitiveness and reflect market conditions. Constructive pay discussions with the Maritime Trade Unions are ongoing, focused on supporting retention and delivering a modern, growing organisation capable of meeting current and future defence tasking.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assess the importance of maintaining the temporary shortage list status of dancers and choreographers (standard occupational classification code 3414); and what assessment they have made of the impact of recent changes to salary thresholds and visa restrictions on professional dance companies and the UK performing arts industry.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the new Temporary Shortage List (TSL), which provides limited exemptions from the skills threshold. The MAC are due to report in the summer and we will consider their recommendations at that time.
An impact assessment of changes to the Skilled Worker immigration route has been published alongside the statement of changes.
There are also provisions within the immigration system for dancers to use the Temporary Work – Creative Worker and Visitor routes.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide longer-term funding certainty for schools supported by the Music and Dance Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 79898.