Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they will allocate to the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (1) next year, and (2) for each year of the Spending Review 2025 (CP 1336).
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan confirmed that we will expand the Graduate Management Trainee Scheme by 50%, to ensure we attract the best and brightest talent. Alongside that, we will increase its diversity and reform it to focus on the three shifts and system working. National Health Service employers and contractors will be required to facilitate the scheme as part of their core business.
Funding has been allocated for an expansion of the Graduate Management Training Scheme as part of the Spending Review. Further detail will be set out in the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England (CP 1350), how they assessed and evaluated that "By 2035, we anticipate half of all healthcare interactions will be informed by genomic insights and other predictive analytics".
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out how the National Health Service will continue leading the world in genomics as it increasingly becomes part of routine care over the next 10 years. The statement that “by 2035, we anticipate half of all healthcare interactions will be informed by genomic insights and other predictive analytics” is part of Genomics England’s shared vision with the NHS on the potential of genomics in healthcare. Routine use of pharmacogenomics in the NHS could achieve this vision, as over 98% of people carry at least one relevant pharmacogenomic variant, and in a recent study, 80% of patients in an acute setting were exposed to a medicine for which there is pharmacogenetic prescribing guidance available.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial spend is planned on posts in the very senior managers category in the NHS in (1) this financial year, and (2) the following three years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally. Spend on very senior managers (VSM) pay is locally determined by individual National Health Service organisations within their local budget positions. VSM pay arrangements are subject to the decisions of local remuneration committees, which are ordinarily based on the provisions in the VSM pay framework and the independent recommendations of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB). Future spending on VSM pay will depend on the outcomes of SSRB recommendations, and individual NHS trusts’ decisions are dependent on their financial position at a local level.
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 reports that NHS England has categorised £1.5 billion worth of local trust and commissioner financial plans as “high risk” and what estimate have they made, by NHS trust and integrated care board, of spending which is “high risk” when calculating this total figure.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working closely with NHS England to manage financial risk in 2025/26, and to assure the delivery of agreed financial plans. We recognise the aggregate £1.5 billion of risk in plans, which is a top-down estimate. The Department has not made an estimate of that risk by individual trust and integrated care board. Work to manage and mitigate the risk includes derisking efficiency plans, and robust performance management, including a Financial Performance Improvement Programme. We are confident that overall financial balance of the National Health Service budget will be achieved.
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 plan to bring forward legislation or guidance for non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates surgical procedures, including male circumcision for therapeutic and non-therapeutic reasons, where the procedure is carried out by a health care professional.
The CQC has developed guidance with other professional organisations entitled Additional guidance and prompts: non-therapeutic male circumcision, a copy of which is attached.
The Government has no current plans to bring forward legislation or further guidance on non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the redundancy costs as a result of job cuts in NHS England and integrated care boards (ICB) this financial year; and whether ICB redundancy payments will come from existing ICB budgets.
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 reducing integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs, in order to deliver value for money for the public and empower our health system to improve health and care for patients. Good progress is being made, with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit or redundancy schemes.
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. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while transition planning is ongoing.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26, published on 26 June, what is the specific purpose and intended use of contextual metrics for integrated care boards.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 will not be used to score integrated care boards’ (ICBs) performance or to assign them to performance categories or segments. This is to allow them to focus on the substantial changes to their organisational function and form, alongside efforts to meet their running cost reduction plans.
However, ICB data will continue to be collected, monitored, and reported against the full suite of metrics. These will be used during NHS England’s regular performance conversations with ICBs and to inform the use of intervention powers, should NHS England deem this necessary to support improvement.
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 impact of changes to the funding provided by NHS England on the planned elective care hub at St Albans City Hospital, in particular the impact on East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, and West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Capital funding for the Hertfordshire and West Essex Surgical Centre at St Albans City Hospital remains in place, and building work is being supported through to completion.
Although there are no current plans for the patients of the East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust to use the West Essex Surgical Centre when it opens, the integrated care board intends the centre to support the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust with their orthopaedic capacity over winter, and the centre will be used by West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust patients while existing theatres at St Albans City Hospital are refurbished.
Having this high-quality new resource in the system will also give the trust the flexibility to scale up capacity in the future if needed, and will benefit patients for years to come.
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 4 June (HL8130), what is the reason for the delay in publishing the next annual LeDeR report seven months later relative to the previous annual report.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect the report will be published shortly, and the delay has been due to practical data issues.
NHS England commissions Kings College London and its partners to analyse data from Learning from Lives and Deaths, reviews about people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR). The LeDeR report is published by Kings College London, who are currently working on the next report, and will publish it soon. The last report was published in November 2023, a copy of which has been placed in the Library due to the size of the document.
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 20 May (HL7198), whether they have carried out an impact assessment of reducing staff costs by 50 per cent for NHS England, including on the regional impacts; and if not, when an impact assessment will be carried out and published.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate.
The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that the public and parliamentarians are informed of the outcomes.