Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department intends to publish guidance for (a) employers and (b) pregnant workers on new and expectant mothers in the workplace during covid-19.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Advice for employers on managing the workplace during COVID-19 was published on 14 July 2021 at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-covid-19
The Health and Safety Executive also provided guidance on working safely during the pandemic, which is available at the following link:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/index.htm
‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): advice for pregnant employees’ was recently updated on 31 January 2022 and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-pregnant-employees
This guidance also provides advice to employers on undertaking risk assessments for pregnant employees and regularly reviewing workplace conditions. The Health and Safety Executive also provided additional guidance for employers on protecting pregnant workers during the pandemic, which is available at the following link:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm#pregnant_workers
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS Trust maternity services offer pregnant women vaccinations in their antenatal clinics; and whether the NHS has plans to roll this out to all maternity services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Pregnant women are offered vaccinations for flu, pertussis (whooping cough) and COVID-19. Data on the number of maternity services offering these vaccinations within antenatal clinics is not held centrally.
During the 2021/22 flu season, almost all trusts in England with maternity services can offer flu vaccinations to pregnant women. We aim to achieve 100% of trusts offering the vaccination in 2022/23. All general practitioner (GP) services and over 9,500 community pharmacists can offer flu vaccinations to pregnant women in the 2021/22 flu season.
All GP services offer pregnant women vaccination against pertussis as part of a national programme. It can also be offered by trusts with maternity services on a regionally commissioned basis, where uptake rates are otherwise lower.
To maximise uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations in pregnancy, the National Health Service has worked with a range of stakeholders to support access to vaccination within the antenatal pathway. On 25 January 2022, maternity services and system vaccination leads were asked to ensure that every woman attending a maternity service has access to COVID-19 vaccinations within the maternity service or a walk-in vaccination service elsewhere on the same site.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 ensure continuity in NHS midwifery care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The ambition for the National Health Service in England is for midwifery continuity of carer to be the default model of care for maternity services, and available to all pregnant women. We have committed that by 2024, 75% of women from a black/black British and Asian/Asian British ethnic background and women from the 10% of neighbourhoods that are most deprived nationally will receive continuity of carer.
Continuity of carer will be enhanced for women from the most deprived areas and there will be additional midwifery time and/or additional staff dedicated to women from these areas with the highest health and social care needs. In advance of this, most pregnant women from black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds and also from the most deprived areas will be placed on a continuity of carer pathway in 2022.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £6.8 million to support Local Maternity Systems to co-produce and implement their equity and equality action plans, including the implementation of continuity of carer for black, Asian and mixed ethnic groups and those living in the most deprived areas.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that future purchase of PPE is undertaken with a view to ensuring that it fits female wearers as well as male wearers.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Personal protective equipment is designed to be unisex and offer protection for all wearers. However, buying teams will source a range of different sizes.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 the provision of Sexual Assault Referral Centres in England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Department commissions 47 sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) through NHS England and NHS Improvement, which provide an integrated response to sexual violence and rape. These are geographically split across counties in England to enable access to a SARC service closer to home.
The provision of services is monitored regularly by regional SARC commissioners in partnership with local police and police crime commissioners. Each commissioner will perform regular assessments of its population to ensure services are commissioned to meet local needs. NHS England has increased the investment into sexual assault and abuse services and continues to review patient pathways and provide new services to meet the needs of the victims and survivors who access them.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
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 specialist NHS provision for survivors of FGM in (a) Slough and (b) Milton Keynes compared to the known number of FGM survivors in each of those towns.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
While NHS England and NHS Improvement have not made a formal assessment, we would expect local commissioners to follow the guidance to support commissioners in meeting the needs of women and girls with female genital mutilation (FGM).
NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to gain an understanding of the services required to inform local commissioners’ decision-making via the National Health Service FGM clinics project. NHS England and NHS Improvement are now evaluating the outcomes of the pilot study, while working with local systems to enable future provision.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many specialist FGM clinics (a) have closed over the last ten years or (b) are in the process of closing.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information being requested is not held centrally.