Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce a statutory right of patients to be registered as an NHS patient of a dentist.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We have no immediate plans to introduce a statutory right for patients to be registered as a National Health Service patient. The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, and to recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what payments they have made to whistleblowers in the NHS in each of the last five years (1) as part of non-disclosure agreements reached through out-of-court settlements, and (2) as the result of a decision by an employment tribunal.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold the information requested. National Health Service organisations are independent employers and have their own policies and procedures in resolving workplace disputes, which should be aligned to current employment law and good human resources practice. Whistleblowers cannot waive their rights to make a protected disclosure, regardless of whether they sign an out-of-court settlement agreement. The Government is committed to ensuring we genuinely protect whistleblowers and create a culture of honesty and openness, which will include a review of current enforcement measures, to give a clear message that any misuse of confidentiality clauses will not be tolerated in the NHS.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the scrutiny of NHS Foundation Trusts in cases where the chair of the board of directors is the same person as the chair of the council of governors.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

By law, the chair of a foundation trust is also the chair of the council of governors. This requirement is set out in paragraph 12 of Schedule 7 to the National Health Service Act 2006.

The rationale is to ensure that the chair, who oversees the foundation trust’s board, which is itself comprised of executives and non-executives and is responsible for the trust’s operation and plan development, serves as the link between this board and the council of governors, who are elected by the foundation trust’s members and represent the local population.

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of scrutiny into the dual-chair role.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases of whistleblowing there have been in the past five years across all the health and care services that are within the remit of the Department of Health and Social Care; and how many of these cases were within the NHS and how many were within the private sector.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following table shows the total number of Freedom to Speak Up cases reported to the National Guardian’s Office (NGO), and the number and proportion raised by workers in independent organisations and National Health Service trusts, each year from 2019 to 2024:

Notes:

1. organisations categorised as independent include private hospitals, ambulances, and hospices; and
2. cases from NHS organisations do not make up all of the remaining cases as the total cases will also include cases from other organisation types supported by Freedom to Speak Up guardians, for example, non-providers, such as regulators and Arm’s Length Bodies, defence military services, and charities.

Speaking up cases brought to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians may include whistleblowing, however they may also be issues for improvement or wider matters which would not meet a formal definition of whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is when someone who works for an employer raises a concern by making a disclosure in the public interest via provisions in the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Speaking up is about encouraging a positive culture where people feel they can speak up about anything that gets in the way of providing good care, that their voices will be heard, and their suggestions acted upon.

The above data is collected anonymously from individual organisations and provided voluntarily to the NGO by Guardians, and as such may represent an incomplete picture. Guardians are one of many routes to speaking up internally within an organisation. Employees may also speak up to regulators, some of which may be captured as whistleblowing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS whistleblowers were heeded and were satisfied with the response of their employers.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following table shows the data reported to the National Guardian’s Office (NGO) on the total number of workers that provided feedback about their experience of speaking up to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, and the proportion of those workers who said they would speak up again, each year from 2019 to 2024:

Note: feedback received may be about cases that were raised in a previous financial year

Speaking up cases brought to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians may include whistleblowing, however they may also be issues for improvement or wider matters which would not meet a formal definition of whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is when someone who works for an employer raises a concern by making a disclosure in the public interest via provisions in the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Speaking up is about encouraging a positive culture where people feel they can speak up about anything that gets in the way of providing good care, that their voices will be heard, and their suggestions acted upon.

The above data is collected anonymously from individual organisations and provided voluntarily to the NGO by Guardians, and as such could represent an incomplete picture. Guardians are one of many routes to speaking up internally within an organisation. Employees may also speak up to regulators, some of which may be captured as whistleblowing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of the Care Quality Commission when inspecting dental businesses; and whether they have any plans to ask them also to consider the availability of NHS appointments when carrying out dental inspections.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates all health and social care services including dental services in England. CQC carries out assessments of primary dental services to determine if they are compliant with regulations. CQC inspects 10% of dental services each year, as they are considered to pose a lower risk to patient safety than other regulated sectors, though they can, and do, inspect more frequently if concerns are raised. Instead of a single rating, CQC displays ticks and crosses against each of their five key questions to show if any enforcement or improvement actions are required.This results in a ‘regulations met’ or ‘regulations not met’ judgement. The availability of NHS dental appointments is not a condition of registration, nor is it a regulated activity, and so is not something that would be inspected. CQC does not currently look at wider areas, such as access to dental services, equity of access, efficiency of care provision, or the effectiveness of dental services. The ongoing review of the CQC by Penny Dash – and the broader regulatory landscape – will consider wider issues of how to assess, and improve, access to care, innovation in care delivery and use of resources – for all health and care services.

Integrated Care Boards took control of commissioning NHS dental activity in April 2023.

Activity in NHS dentistry is measured by the number of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) commissioned and delivered and by the number of courses of treatment delivered. The number of appointments delivered are not used as a measurement of dental activity. Data on the number of UDAs commissioned and delivered is published each month on the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data Portal in an online format only.

Found: Yardley (The Chair); Lord Bach; Lord Carter of Coles; Lord Laming; Lord Mott; Lord Prentis of Leeds; Lord

Found: Yardley (The Chair); Lord Bach; Lord Carter of Coles; Lord Laming; Lord Mott; Lord Prentis of Leeds; Lord

No description available