Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the current terms of reference of Healthwatch England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Healthwatch England is the independent statutory national champion for people who use health and social care services. Its functions include gathering and communicating the views of the public on their needs and experiences of health and social care services. Healthwatch England also provides support and assistance to the 152 Local Healthwatch organisations in England.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 8 October (HL957), when they expect considerations on extending the Electronic Prescription Service to conclude, and a decision to be taken.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of ongoing considerations, NHS England intends to launch a pilot in the coming months extending the Electronic Prescription Service to specific Detained Estate health services in England. Amendments to the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 will be made in the autumn, subject to parliamentary time.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase funding to hospices in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure that patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting and palliative and end of life care, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by ICB area, and will, in part, be dependent on the breadth of a range of palliative and end of life care provision within their ICB footprint.
The Department will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to amend the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 to enable the electronic transfer of prescriptions between prisons and community pharmacies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is considering extending the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) to Detained Estate health services in England, and the Department is engaging with them on this work.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the accessibility of mental health services to (1) children and young people, and (2) older adults, who have speech, language and communication needs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the NHS Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance for 2024/25, NHS England is continuing to expand access to mental health services. This includes increasing the number of children and young people accessing comprehensive mental health support, as well as the number of adults and older adults completing a course of treatment for anxiety and depression via NHS Talking Therapies, some of whom having speech, language, and communication needs. Support may include provision of speech and language therapy as part of a local offer, however decisions about service provision are down to local determination by integrated care boards, to meet locally identified need.
As set out in the Equality Act 2010, all organisations, including those in health and social care, must take steps to remove the barriers individuals face because of disability. The National Health Service must make it as easy for disabled people to use health services as it is for people who are not disabled. NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers must also comply with the Accessible Information Standard, to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the way that deaths of patients detained in secure settings under the Mental Health Act 1983 are investigated.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no such plans at this time to change the way that deaths of patients detained in secure settings under the Mental Health Act 1983 are investigated.
The Mental Health Bill will deliver our manifesto commitment to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983. It will give patients greater choice, autonomy, enhanced rights and support, and ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout treatment. The Bill will make the Act fit for the 21st century, redressing the balance of power from the system to the patient and ensuring people with the most severe mental health conditions get better, more personalised, care.
The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework sets out the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety. The Framework became a requirement in the NHS standard contract from April 2024. Under this framework a locally-led patient safety incident investigation is required for deaths of patients detained under the Mental Health Act (1983) or where the Mental Capacity Act (2005) applies, where there is reason to think that the death may be linked to problems in care (i.e., the incident meets the “learning from deaths” criteria, the investigation explores decisions or actions as they relate to the safety event).
In addition, all deaths among people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 are reported to the Care Quality Commission and referred to the Coroners Office.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve access to speech and language therapy services in prisons.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s Regional Health and Justice teams directly commission the primary healthcare services within prisons, and oversee the healthcare delivery based on the primary care service specifications for prisons. In line with the specifications, healthcare providers should provide healthcare which includes supporting people’s mental health, as well as communication, speech, and language needs.
Healthcare services in the children and young people secure estate are commissioned locally by Regional Health and Justice commissioners using core outcome-based specifications, which are benchmarked by the Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings. These include several individual standards that reference speech, language, and communication needs, as part of the overall complex needs that are common in children held in these settings.
NHS England recently held an event for regional Health and Justice neurodiversity leads and commissioners on neurodiversity specialist recruitment, to support with recruitment and training in specialist areas such as speech and language therapists. This included a presentation from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist’s prisons lead. In addition, NHS England has allocated additional funding to Health and Justice regions which has been ring-fenced for use on their adult prison custodial neurodiversity pathways.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the capacity and geographical distribution of inpatient secure mental health beds.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has advised that work is currently underway with the 15 Adult Secure Provider Collaboratives across England to speed up the safe and timely transfer of appropriately assessed people from prison. This includes identifying existing capacity, including workforce estates and location, that can be reconfigured at pace; identifying where additional capacity, including workforce and estates, may be required; and, scoping at pace, the creation of alternative clinically safe service models.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the funding of hospices in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care, including at end of life. We understand that, financially, times are difficult for many voluntary and charitable organisations, including hospices, due to the increased cost of living. We want a society where these costs are manageable for both voluntary organisations, like hospices, and the people whom they serve.
The Government is going to shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community, and we recognise that hospices will play a vital role. We will consider next steps on palliative and end of life care more widely in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the financial position of each integrated care board at the end of financial year 2023–24.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The financial year-end reports for integrated care boards are still in progress and not yet finalised. We anticipate that final, audited reports will be completed and available in July 2024.