Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 help support community-based preventative services for older people in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of a broader strategy to improve quality of care and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, the National Health Service is implementing various preventative services to support older people in maintaining their health and independence. For example, support for frailty through the NHS Toolkit, that helps general practitioners (GPs) identify and manage frailty in patients aged 65 years old and over, and preventative primary care interventions are being evaluated to improve functional ability and self-rated health for older people. The NHS 10 Year Plan aims to move care from hospitals into communities, bringing together health and care professionals to provide proactive care and prevention.
The Community Care Collaborative in Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS) has rolled out six new neighbourhood health hubs to date. These will bring together multi-disciplinary health and care professionals in each locality across Birmingham to provide easily accessible community-based care for individuals with frailty and long-term conditions.
The neighbourhood health hubs will host 11 new integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs) in Birmingham and Solihull ICS, with an aim to have teams across all 35 of its neighbourhoods by the end of 2026. The INTs provide a holistic response to an individual's care.
A recent evaluation of the first INT pilot teams to go live across the ICS shows a 31% reduction in GP appointments and fewer inpatient stays at acute hospitals.
The NHS offers several vaccinations for older adults to protect them from disease. This includes vaccination for flu, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), shingles and pneumonia. These are delivered in the community primarily through general practice, with flu and COVID-19 vaccinations also available at community pharmacies across England, and RSV vaccinations available at select community pharmacies in some areas including Sutton Coldfield and the wider Birmingham and Solihull region.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 help improve the availability of clinical trials for dementia patients.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.
DHSC is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with dementia, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.
DHSC funds research and research infrastructure through the NIHR which supports National Health Service patients, the public, and NHS organisations across England to participate in high-quality research, including clinical trials into dementia
As an example, DHSC, via the NIHR, is investing nearly £50 million into the Dementia Trials Network, a coordinated network of trial sites across the United Kingdom, which will offer people with dementia the opportunity to take part in early phase clinical trials irrespective of where they live. This is complemented by the £20 million Dementia Trials Accelerator, designed to position the United Kingdom as the destination of choice for late phase clinical trials in dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.
The NIHR also funds research infrastructure which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research, including research on dementia. For example, the aim of the University College London Hospitals’ Biomedical Research Centre’s dementia theme is to develop novel treatments through precision medicine.
In partnership with Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Alzheimer Scotland, the NIHR also delivers Join Dementia Research, an online platform which enables the involvement of people with and without a dementia diagnosis, as well as carers, to take part in a range of important research, including studies evaluating potential treatments for dementia.
The NIHR also provides an online service called 'Be Part of Research', which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies, including those with dementia, and register their interest.
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme, with up to £150 million expected to be allocated to, or aligned with it, aims to speed up the development of new treatments for dementia and neurodegenerative conditions by accelerating innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials, and implementation.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle inequalities in (a) waiting times and (b) access to treatment for diabetes in the West Midlands.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Action is being taken across the West Midland integrated care boards (ICBs) to address inequalities in waiting times and access to treatment for diabetes
This action includes strengthening monitoring of data and to identify delays and variation, improving general practice (GP) engagement through Protected Learning Time sessions, streamlining referral pathways and supporting GPs to proactively identify and engage patients using improved data and low-literacy-friendly approaches
ICBs are also take actions to identify groups at greatest risk of poor outcomes who face barriers in accessing services. The aim of these actions is to deliver fairer waiting times, more consistent access to treatment, and equitable, high‑quality diabetes care for all communities.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve breastfeeding support in the West Midlands.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to giving every child the best start in life and support for breastfeeding plays an important role in achieving this.
Most families will receive breastfeeding information and support from midwives and health visitors. We are currently refreshing the guidance for The Healthy Child Programme to strengthen the quality of services, including health visiting. We have increased the number of midwives, with 1,056 more full time equivalent midwives working in the National Health Service in September 2025 compared to September 2024.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, we are investing £18.5 million in 2025/26 to improve infant feeding support in 75 local authorities. This includes Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Telford and Wrekin, and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands. Our investment has also increased the capacity of the National Breastfeeding Helpline so that families across the United Kingdom can access breastfeeding support 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of neonatal nurses in University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.
We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the neighbourhood health centres announced in the Autumn Budget 2025 will be based in the West Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the Autumn Budget, we announced our commitment to deliver 250 neighbourhood health centres (NHCs) through the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme. This will deliver NHCs through a mixture of refurbishments to expand and improve sites over the next three years, along with new-build sites opening in the medium term. The first 120 NHCs are due to be operational by 2030 and will be delivered through public private partnerships and public capital.
Stockland Green Primary Care Centre and Summerfield Primary Care Centre, located in the West Midlands, are some of the first sites that have been chosen to be upgraded as part of the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme.
Nationwide coverage will take time, but we will start in the areas of greatest need where healthy life expectancy is lowest, including rural towns and communities with higher deprivation levels, targeting places where healthy life expectancy is lowest and delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning, which includes planning, securing, and monitoring, general practice services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. Both ICBs and local health systems will be responsible for determining the most appropriate locations for NHCs.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 potential impact of the minimum wage rise on the cost of care home places for (a) those that are self funding and (b) local authorities that fund residents in care homes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly makes assessments of the cost pressures facing adult social care. These assessments take into account a wide range of factors, including changes to the National Minimum Wage and the impact that may have on local authorities funding residents in care homes.
The Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to NHS trusts to increase (a) crisis support services in the local community (b) mental health inpatient beds in the West Midlands.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning National Health Service mental health crisis services and mental health inpatient beds to meet the needs of people across the West Midlands.
Nationally, progress has been achieved in building more robust crisis care pathways across all ages and in all regions, ensuring that people in a mental health crisis can receive the right care. This includes the introduction of the ‘mental health’ option for NHS 111 and the opening of new mental health crisis centres to provide accessible and responsive care for individuals in a mental health crisis.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our ambitions to go further by developing up to 85 dedicated mental health emergency departments so that patients get fast, same-day access to specialist support in an appropriate setting. This expansion builds on a number of early implementer sites that have been established in recent years by local health systems to provide a dedicated therapeutic alternative to emergency departments for individuals in a mental health crisis.
The plan also sets out our plans to transform mental health services to improve access and treatment, and to promote good mental health and wellbeing for the nation. This includes improving assertive outreach, investing in neighbourhood mental health centres, and increasing access to talking therapies and evidence-based digital interventions.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the health outcomes of veterans in the West Midlands.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As well as being able to access all National Health Services across the United Kingdom, NHS England has introduced several bespoke services to improve the healthcare support available to veterans. These are: Op RESTORE which supports veterans with service-related physical health problems; Op COURAGE which supports veterans with a mental health pathway; and Op NOVA which supports veterans in the justice system.
In addition, the veteran-aware trust and the veteran-friendly accreditation schemes raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals of the specific needs of veterans. These schemes provide support to ensure appropriate signposting and referrals to relevant veteran and wider services within the NHS. All trusts in the West Midlands have been accredited as veteran aware and all primary care networks in the West Midlands have at least one accredited practice.
In May 2025, a national training and education plan was announced to help veterans benefit from improved and targeted healthcare. NHS staff across England will receive dedicated training to help them identify and support patients with military backgrounds. This will be rolled out across the NHS from November 2025.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of his Department's procurement contracts were awarded to companies in the West Midlands in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Five contracts were awarded by the Department to suppliers which had registered addresses and postcodes in the West Midlands area of England in 2024/25. This is 1.5% of the total number of contracts awarded by the Department in that financial year.
Larger suppliers to the Department may have supply chain companies and business locations and workforce in the West Midlands area.