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

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.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they have taken to establish the statutory inquiry into the Manston migrant processing centre.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Following a decision to launch a statutory inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005, the Home Office is taking steps to establish the Inquiry. In accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005, the Department will make a formal statement to Parliament, which will include details of the Chair and Terms of Reference, in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reoffending rates following community sentences which include (1) a drug rehabilitation requirement, (2) an alcohol treatment requirement, and (3) a mental health treatment requirement.

Answered by Lord Bellamy

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

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.

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.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the Child Poverty Strategy will address the barriers which prevent children in poverty from accessing speech and language support.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The number of children in poverty has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. This not only harms children’s lives now, but it also damages their future prospects, and holds back our economic potential as a country.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister therefore announced, on 17 July 2024, the appointment of my right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Secretary of State for Education, as the joint leads of a new ministerial taskforce to begin work on a Child Poverty Strategy. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, to tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start at life.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper. Too many children, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, leave primary school with unresolved speech, language and communication needs that have a lasting impact on their life chances.

To help tackle this now, the department will provide targeted support for teachers in early years settings and primary schools to support children with the development of speech, language and communication skills. More broadly, the department will work with teachers and curriculum experts to identify how oracy can be woven into lessons across the curriculum to support all children to succeed. Through this, the department aims to support teachers across the country to realise the benefits of using oracy to teach, by adding it to their repertoire and enabling more children and young people to flourish in life and work.

Early language skills are vital to enable children to thrive in the early years and later in life, including for all aspects of later attainment in school. To support early language skills, the department is investing over £20 million in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme (NELI). NELI is an evidence-based programme targeting reception aged children needing extra support with their speech and language development and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, which rises to seven months for those eligible for free school meals. In July 2024, the department announced that funded support for the 11,100 schools registered for the NELI programme, which is equivalent to two thirds of all English state primaries, would continue for the 2024/25 academic year.

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.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review (1) the level of the Carer's Allowance, and (2) the eligibility threshold for the Carer's Allowance.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

This Government recognises the challenges unpaid carers are facing and is determined to provide them with the help and support they need and deserve. It is looking closely at how the benefit system currently does this, notably through Universal Credit and Carer’s Allowance.

With respect to benefit levels, the Secretary of State has a statutory obligation to review the rates of State pensions and benefits each year. In the case of Carer’s Allowance, the relevant statute provides that it must rise at least in line with the increase in prices over the preceding year. The review to set rates for 2025/26 will take place in the autumn.

Other support is available through the benefit system. Full-time unpaid carers on low incomes may also be eligible for means tested support, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £198.31 per monthly assessment period. The additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £45.60 a week.

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.