Oral Answers to Questions

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

This is an incredibly important agenda that is close to my heart. It is at the core of the prevention of ill health to ensure that we have the right primary care services. Yes, that includes more GPs, but it also includes more of the other health professionals who support them. We have 1,000 extra non-GP clinical staff already working in general practice compared with just two years ago, but there is much more to do.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

But what is the Secretary of State doing about retaining GPs? This is a real problem, and we have seen more and more GPs taking early retirement in recent years. What is he doing specifically to support retention?

[Matt Hancock]

This is a core question that Baroness Dido Harding’s workforce review will be looking into, and work is going on right across government to try to fix it.

Services for People with Autism

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

I thank my hon. Friend for his words and for championing his constituents. As he rightly says, some autistic people tend to fall through the gaps. Of course, all local authorities have a responsibility to take note when it comes to autism. We see individuals who are on the autism spectrum but are not receiving help because they might be outside a defined period. The extension of plans up to the age of 25 will go some way towards addressing that, but we still see people falling through the gaps. I will touch on some of the other areas that might address his concerns, or I will at least make calls to those on the Front Bench.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham continues:

“This year, it falls on the Government once again to review its strategy and identify what more needs to be done.

Each of us has about 1,000 people on the autism spectrum in our constituencies and it affects one in 100 people. We each will have many autistic people and their family members contacting us to ask for our help on areas from education to adult support, diagnosis to employment...”

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

The excellent speech mentioned the Government’s strategy. A perennial problem—it crops up all the time in my constituency—is the speed of diagnosis. The fact is that so many children with autism simply do not get an education. Surely the strategy must try to address that in a much better way than it has in the past.

[Huw Merriman]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Time and again we see that young people have to fail before they can be given the support they need. There are many examples of young people clearly failing when they go to a pre-school, but then they still have to move on to a mainstream school, where they will fail, before they can be given support. It should be blindingly obvious, and councils should look at those plans before children have to start primary school. Often councils say that they are not required to do that, but perhaps they do not know what their obligations really are.

Breast Cancer Screening

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is a good point, and we will get in touch with all the cancer charities that we think are going to be affected by what has happened and make sure they have the support they need.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

When did the Secretary of State or the Minister with direct responsibility for screening last ask their officials about the accuracy of the screening programme and the robustness of the checks and assurances in place to ensure it was working properly and efficiently? When, before January this year, did he last ask his officials that?

[Mr Hunt]

I will have to get back to the hon. Gentleman with a detailed answer to that question. Ministers were informed of this issue in March, and we are responsible, as Ministers, for the effective functioning of that system—in the way all Ministers have responsibility for their various areas—so one of the questions we need to ask is whether the right escalation procedures and checks and balances were in place so that Ministers could be informed if there was likely to be a problem.

Oral Answers to Questions

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend always speaks very thoughtfully on this matter, and it is important, because social care issues will continue for decades ahead unless we find a solution and both parties will have to deal with this issue in government. In truth, both parties have made things worse by politicking in the past, whether by discussion about a death tax in 2009 or a dementia tax in 2017.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

I have received a document from my local authority sent out by Cheshire and Merseyside NHS which tells it that it should be looking at there being a minimum of one choice of place for people coming out of hospital into a care home, and if that cannot be met it should be looking at transitional placements. So it will have to ask people who are frail and elderly to go into transitional placements, and that will cost more money. How are people going to be able to cope with this? At the end of the day, the problem is simply this: there is not enough money; there is not enough money to pay for good quality staff; and there are not enough places. The Government should be ashamed of themselves.

[Mr Hunt]

It is the hon. Gentleman’s party that should be ashamed of itself for leaving us with the financial crisis 10 years ago that has created such huge pressure in both the health and social care systems. Yes, in 2010 there were some cuts in the social care system, but that has changed now and over this Parliament the budget is going up, with £9.4 billion of additional resources, which is an 8.6% increase in real terms. We need to go further, however, which is why we have a Green Paper.

Oral Answers to Questions

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. The better care fund is already having a fantastic impact in the area. We are developing metrics for assessing progress on integration by local area, particularly at the interface of health and social care. We need to proceed with this as rapidly as possible, and I am sure that with his backing, that will happen in his local area.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

It is of course very important that we see integration of the two services, but the fact remains that there is just not enough money. Over a year ago, one of the Minister’s predecessors praised my authority in Halton for the work it was doing in this area, but Halton is now on the brink in terms of the money it has and its ability to deliver its statutory duties. There is simply not enough money, and the Government keep trying to avoid that.

[Caroline Dinenage]

We have provided £2 billion of extra funding over the next three years to help councils commission high-quality services, in addition to giving councils access to up to £9.25 billion of dedicated social care funding by 2019-20.

Oral Answers to Questions

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Tuesday 4th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady happens to work in an NHS hospital in which there has been a big increase in the number of nurses. Across the country, there are actually 13,000 more nurses working on our wards than there were in 2010, but she is right: we need more nurses and nursing staff, and that is why we are expanding the number of nurse associates. This year we are, for the first time, opening up an apprenticeship route into nursing, which means that people from non-traditional backgrounds—particularly band 3 healthcare assistants—will find it much easier to get into nursing. That is how we will expand the workforce.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

According to the latest NHS indicators published by the House of Commons Library last week, the number of GPs is estimated to have fallen over the past 12 months, and the figures for March 2017 are expected to show a further fall. Why is that?

[Mr Hunt]

We have had a big increase in the number of medical students choosing to go into general practice, but we have also had an increase in the number of GPs retiring early. That is a problem that we are urgently addressing.