Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase uptake of breast cancer screening in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In Aldershot at a local level, the team will soon start trialling an animated video to promote breast screening. This has been developed in partnership with Imperial College London.
On a national level, NHS England has developed an improvement plan in collaboration with key stakeholders to support local and regional uptake, which includes: expanding access and reducing inequalities by increasing the use of evidence based and evaluated interventions, focusing on low uptake areas and groups; improved data and analytics by ensuring we have the availability of population level data to show insights into uptake and support services, to deliver targeted initiatives; IT developments to continue development of the breast screening IT systems, as part of the Digital Transformation of Screening programme, and by starting a programme of work to enable people to book appointments through the NHS App; contracting and service oversight, by strengthening contracting mechanisms and performance management to monitor impact and benefits; and communication, by ensuring the programme has appropriate inclusive and accessible communication mechanisms and materials.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of school funding per pupil in (a) Aldershot constituency and (b) the rest of the country.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The overall core schools budget will total £61.8 billion in 2024/25. Average per pupil funding in England, as allocated through the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), is £5,957.
The DSG is allocated at local authority level, and as such the equivalent figures are not available for Aldershot constituency. For Aldershot constituency, the notional national funding formula (NFF) average per-pupil funding is £5,447. That is calculated based on the notional schools NFF allocations for all mainstream schools in the constituency. The allocations that schools within a constituency actually receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area. The funding figures for Aldershot constituency are based on the constituency boundaries before the July 2024 general election.
All of the figures provided include premises funding, but exclude growth funding. The figures do not include the additional grant funding that schools in the Aldershot constituency and across the country have received to support pay and pensions increases in 2024/25.
Schools in Aldershot constituency have a lower proportion of pupils who attract deprivation funding through the NFF than the national average.
The precise funding that individual schools in Aldershot constituency and across the country receive depends on each school’s unique circumstances and the decisions that it has made about how to deploy its funding.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) GP and (b) dental provision in Aldershot constituency; and what plans he has to improve that provision.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that patients are finding it harder than ever to see a general practitioner (GP) or National Health Service dentist, and we are committed to fixing the the crisis in primary care to secure the long-term sustainability of the NHS, and increase access to local services including those in the Aldershot constituency. Aldershot sits within the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB), where the percentage of GP appointments delivered within two weeks of booking is 3.2% lower than the national average. Our annual statistics show that in 2023, only 40% of the adult population in the Frimley ICB were seen by an NHS dentist in the last two years, compared with 41% nationally.
Our plan to restore GPs will require both investment and reform. We have committed to training thousands more GPs, ending the 8:00am scramble for appointments by introducing a modern booking system, and trialing new neighborhood health centers to bring community health services together under one roof. Furthermore, the Government will also bring back the family doctor by incentivising GPs to see the same patient. The Government will also tackle the immediate dental 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.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to provide (a) financial and (b) other support to local community organisations to help tackle anti-social behaviour in their area.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
We will put thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they can go to when things go wrong and will set out further measures in due course.
The Safer Streets Fund is a crime prevention programme, helping to prevent neighbourhood crime, violence against women and girls (VAWG) and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in public spaces to ensure the public is better protected.