Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are used by NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care to measure improvements to health for people with learning disabilities directly linked to the Core20PLUS5 programme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Core20PLUS5 is a national approach to inform action to reduce healthcare inequalities at a system level. The approach defines a target population, the Core20PLUS, and five clinical areas to focus on that require accelerated improvement. PLUS population groups should be identified at a local level. NHS England expects to see learning disability identified as a priority cohort.
The Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme has worked closely with NHS England’s clinical programmes to develop and embed indicators which enable the monitoring of the access, experience, and outcomes for Core20PLUS populations, and this includes people with a learning disability. The Core20PLUS5 indicator for learning disability is the Percentage of patients aged 14+ on GP learning disability registers who received an annual health check.
NHS England has published a Statement on Information on Health Inequalities which sets out the data that integrated care boards (ICBs) are expected to collect. This includes that ICBs should publish in their 2023/24 and 2024/25 annual reports relating to learning disability annual health checks and adult mental health inpatient rates for people with a learning disability and autistic people. Within these annual reports, it is expected that ICBs should explain how the information has been used to guide action.
In addition, each ICB must have an executive lead for learning disability and autism who will support the board in addressing health inequalities, supporting equal access to care across all health services, and improving overall health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what improvements have been made to life expectancy for people with learning disabilities through the Core20PLUS5 programme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Core20PLUS5 is a national approach to inform action to reduce healthcare inequalities at a system level. The approach defines a target population, the Core20PLUS, and five clinical areas to focus on that require accelerated improvement. PLUS population groups should be identified at a local level. NHS England expects to see learning disability identified as a priority cohort.
The Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme has worked closely with NHS England’s clinical programmes to develop and embed indicators which enable the monitoring of the access, experience, and outcomes for Core20PLUS populations, and this includes people with a learning disability. The Core20PLUS5 indicator for learning disability is the Percentage of patients aged 14+ on GP learning disability registers who received an annual health check.
NHS England has published a Statement on Information on Health Inequalities which sets out the data that integrated care boards (ICBs) are expected to collect. This includes that ICBs should publish in their 2023/24 and 2024/25 annual reports relating to learning disability annual health checks and adult mental health inpatient rates for people with a learning disability and autistic people. Within these annual reports, it is expected that ICBs should explain how the information has been used to guide action.
In addition, each ICB must have an executive lead for learning disability and autism who will support the board in addressing health inequalities, supporting equal access to care across all health services, and improving overall health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why a contract worth £8 million for IT consultancy is required to support the abolition of NHS England and the transfer of many of its functions to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We inherited two head offices for the National Health Service, one for NHS England and one for the Department of Health and Social Care, and with two organisations comes two sets of corporate IT systems.
This two-year contract will maximise efficiency and boost productivity by designing and integrating the Department and NHS England’s corporate IT functions to create one single system following the merger.
All Government contracts are robustly assessed to ensure they deliver value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence-based assessment they have conducted of the safety of the non-regulation of unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcision of boys.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to make changes to the regulatory framework for unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcision of boys. No recent evidence-based assessment has been conducted in relation to the regulatory oversight of unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcision of boys.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to introduce regulations for unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcision of boys.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no plans to make changes to the regulatory framework for unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcision of boys. No recent evidence-based assessment has been conducted in relation to the regulatory oversight of unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcision of boys.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 1 October (HL10420), what databases or financial records they used to conclude that no individuals have yet received redundancy or severance payments as a result of reductions in NHS England or integrated care board staff in this financial year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The written answer for HL10420, stating that no individuals have yet received redundancy or severance payments, relates to the Department and NHS England. The schemes are being managed by the human resource departments of both organisations, who hold the supporting documentation, including the financial offers that will be made to individuals who progress to exit. It remains the case that no individuals have yet left under these schemes, with no costs having therefore been incurred.
In the case of integrated care board staff, the associated records will be held locally. At a national level we continue to work with HM Treasury on how to prioritise funding for redundancy payments ahead of the medium-term planning framework being published.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is a minimum age requirement to be a practitioner of non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no requirement in law for a practitioner performing non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) to be medically trained or to be of a minimum age. If an NMTC procedure is carried out by a regulated healthcare professional, they will be subject to oversight by the relevant professional regulator such as the General Medical Council for doctors or the Nursing and Midwifery Council for nurses and midwives.
If a regulated healthcare professional is acting in a religious or spiritual role, they cannot ‘opt out’ of their core duties and responsibilities, and therefore any registered healthcare professional wishing to carry out NTMC must be registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry out the regulated activity of surgical procedures.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the legality of unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcisions of boys.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no requirement in law for a practitioner performing non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) to be medically trained or to be of a minimum age. If an NMTC procedure is carried out by a regulated healthcare professional, they will be subject to oversight by the relevant professional regulator such as the General Medical Council for doctors or the Nursing and Midwifery Council for nurses and midwives.
If a regulated healthcare professional is acting in a religious or spiritual role, they cannot ‘opt out’ of their core duties and responsibilities, and therefore any registered healthcare professional wishing to carry out NTMC must be registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry out the regulated activity of surgical procedures.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 22 September (HL10271), what assurance mechanisms NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care have in place to monitor (1) the trusts and NHS organisations that are implementing learning disabilities mortality review (LeDeR) report recommendations, and (2) the improvements that are made directly as a result of implementing LeDeR report recommendations.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) and National Health Service organisations have a key role to play in reducing the health inequalities and premature mortality experienced by people with a learning disability and autistic people.
ICBs are responsible for ensuring that learning disabilities mortality (LeDeR) reviews are completed in their local area so that NHS organisations can implement the learning from those reviews and improve the quality of services. ICBs are expected to prioritise LeDeR reviews within their delivery plans, and as part of their local governance to learn from deaths. The analysis of findings from local LeDeR reviews should inform which areas organisations prioritise for quality improvement activity. In its Action from Learning Report, NHS England shares improvement initiatives being taken across England and provides guidance on what action needs to be taken by health and care organisations.
The 2025/2026 NHS priorities and operational planning guidance requires that integrated care systems and NHS trusts work together to reduce health inequalities. The NHS England Operating Framework sets out further information on how NHS England operates and works together with ICBs and NHS providers to deliver health and care services and improve health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they plan to take to support integrated care boards that are unable to fund redundancies to reduce staffing costs by the end of this year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate cost reductions to reduce waste and bureaucracy.
We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. Ahead of asking the NHS to commence a multi-year planning round, we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised including making provision for redundancy costs.