Asked by: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that a higher proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic people are dying as a result of COVID-19 than people of other ethnicities; whether they have now established an inquiry into the issue; and if so, what that inquiry has discovered to date.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are very concerned by the apparent disproportionate number of people from minority ethnic backgrounds who have died, both within the National Health Service and overall. We have asked Public Health England (PHE) to complete a rapid review to understand how COVID-19 may be having an impact on different ethnic groups, and other groups of concern. PHE has begun linking thousands of existing health records for people who have had COVID-19 in order to gather more robust data.
To complement this rapid review by Public Health England, the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation issued a joint call on 22 April for research proposals to investigate emerging evidence of an association between ethnicity and COVID-19 incidence and adverse health outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government when they intend to bring forward proposals for a consultation on social care.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government will work to address the challenges of social care for our ageing population, bringing forward proposals for consultation to build widespread support.
We will provide further details on the next steps on social care in due course.
The Government is committed to listening to people’s views on how to reform the social care system, to ensure it is sustainable for current and future generations and that the quality of care improves.
Asked by: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the Ethnic Inequality and Mental Health Consultation by Lankelly Chase Foundation, what efforts they are making to address the dissatisfaction felt within the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic mental health sector with the Government's lack of commitment to address ethnic inequalities in mental health.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Everyone should be able to access mental health services according to need. However, we know that there are inequalities in the access to mental health services. For example, older adults, men, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and those who are Deaf are not accessing services in the numbers predicted by prevalence studies. The National Health Service is leading on work on equality of access. We are listening to people with experience of mental health within BAME communities and continuing to make the changes needed to ensure equality throughout mental health services.
There are no plans to make additional resources available for mental health services in BAME communities. However, planning requirements for 2015-2016 require clinical commissioning groups to invest additionally in mental health in line with the growth in their overall funding allocation, which should benefit all communities.
In July 2014, the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health published guidance for commissioners of mental health services for those from black and minority ethnic communities which is attached and can be found at the following link:
http://www.jcpmh.info/wp-content/uploads/jcpmh-bme-guide.pdf
The Department has been working with NHS England and commissioners to disseminate this guidance which describes what ‘good’ mental health services for people from BAME communities look like.
One of the key priorities of the work in updating the Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice, which was published in January 2015, was to eliminate discrimination, including for people from BAME communities. The Department’s published Equality Analysis Equality for all: Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice sets out a range of additional guidance that has been included aiming to address concerns raised by BAME stakeholders and others.
Asked by: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of early intervention and preventative mental health services and the extent to which these are used by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Everyone should be able to access mental health services according to need. However, we know that there are inequalities in the access to mental health services. For example, older adults, men, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and those who are Deaf are not accessing services in the numbers predicted by prevalence studies. The National Health Service is leading on work on equality of access. We are listening to people with experience of mental health within BAME communities and continuing to make the changes needed to ensure equality throughout mental health services.
There are no plans to make additional resources available for mental health services in BAME communities. However, planning requirements for 2015-2016 require clinical commissioning groups to invest additionally in mental health in line with the growth in their overall funding allocation, which should benefit all communities.
In July 2014, the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health published guidance for commissioners of mental health services for those from black and minority ethnic communities which is attached and can be found at the following link:
http://www.jcpmh.info/wp-content/uploads/jcpmh-bme-guide.pdf
The Department has been working with NHS England and commissioners to disseminate this guidance which describes what ‘good’ mental health services for people from BAME communities look like.
One of the key priorities of the work in updating the Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice, which was published in January 2015, was to eliminate discrimination, including for people from BAME communities. The Department’s published Equality Analysis Equality for all: Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice sets out a range of additional guidance that has been included aiming to address concerns raised by BAME stakeholders and others.
Asked by: Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to make additional resources available to mental health services in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, and if so, what resources they will make available.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Everyone should be able to access mental health services according to need. However, we know that there are inequalities in the access to mental health services. For example, older adults, men, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and those who are Deaf are not accessing services in the numbers predicted by prevalence studies. The National Health Service is leading on work on equality of access. We are listening to people with experience of mental health within BAME communities and continuing to make the changes needed to ensure equality throughout mental health services.
There are no plans to make additional resources available for mental health services in BAME communities. However, planning requirements for 2015-2016 require clinical commissioning groups to invest additionally in mental health in line with the growth in their overall funding allocation, which should benefit all communities.
In July 2014, the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health published guidance for commissioners of mental health services for those from black and minority ethnic communities which is attached and can be found at the following link:
http://www.jcpmh.info/wp-content/uploads/jcpmh-bme-guide.pdf
The Department has been working with NHS England and commissioners to disseminate this guidance which describes what ‘good’ mental health services for people from BAME communities look like.
One of the key priorities of the work in updating the Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice, which was published in January 2015, was to eliminate discrimination, including for people from BAME communities. The Department’s published Equality Analysis Equality for all: Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice sets out a range of additional guidance that has been included aiming to address concerns raised by BAME stakeholders and others.