Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the new Office for Health Promotion will take to (a) improve outcomes and (b) reduce inequalities in the mental and physical wellbeing of children aged under two.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office for Health Promotion (OHP) will bring health improvement focused expert advice, analysis and evidence together with policy development and delivery from Public Health England and the Department. This will include children and young people's health. We will present more detail on our plans for the OHP in due course.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for women experiencing mental ill health to be admitted to a community-based mother and baby unit (a) during or (b) in the year following their pregnancy.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The information requested is not held centrally as there is no defined access and waiting times standard for these services.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the needs of babies, children and young people in decisions on the restructure of Public Health England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On Monday 29 March, we published ‘Transforming the Public Health System: Reforming the Public Health System for the challenges of our times’, which sets out our reform plans for the public health system. The publication can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-public-health-system
We are proposing to move most of the Public Health England functions that directly support development and delivery of national health improvement policy into the new Office for Health Promotion in the Department of Health and Social Care, alongside existing Departmental capability on prevention and health improvement, as they are integral to policy development and delivery, and directly support national decision-making. This will include subject-matter expertise on a range of important public health issues, including but not limited to obesity and nutrition, physical activity, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sexual health, public mental health, children and young people's public health.
Our proposals will strengthen the system and ensure it can meet the needs of the population. This means improving health throughout the life course; from pregnancy and early years, all the way through to old age. We will present more detail on our plans and ambitions for improving the public's health later in 2021.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish details on the future of Public Health England’s maternity and early years functions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On Monday 29 March, we published ‘Transforming the Public Health System: Reforming the Public Health System for the challenges of our times’, which sets out our reform plans for the public health system. The publication can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-public-health-system
We are proposing to move most of the Public Health England functions that directly support development and delivery of national health improvement policy into the new Office for Health Promotion in the Department of Health and Social Care, alongside existing Departmental capability on prevention and health improvement, as they are integral to policy development and delivery, and directly support national decision-making. This will include subject-matter expertise on a range of important public health issues, including but not limited to obesity and nutrition, physical activity, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sexual health, public mental health, children and young people's public health.
Our proposals will strengthen the system and ensure it can meet the needs of the population. This means improving health throughout the life course; from pregnancy and early years, all the way through to old age. We will present more detail on our plans and ambitions for improving the public's health later in 2021.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on NHS pay.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs) will make a recommendation on pay for National Health Service staff in the spring. In reaching their recommendations the PRBs will take into account the cost of living and inflation, recruitment and retention, morale and motivation, affordability and value for the taxpayer. The Department works closely with HM Treasury when submitting evidence to the PRBs.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how often individuals and their recent contacts who are required to self-isolate are contacted; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the monitoring of adherence to the requirement to self-isolate.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Test and Trace contacts those who have tested positive and the close recent contacts they provide by text, email and/or telephone and will call up to 10 times. NHS Test and Trace subsequently maintains contact with each person who is self-isolating on days four and seven of their self-isolation period. SMS messages or e-mails are sent on days two, five and eight.
NHS Test and Trace has carried out surveys of reported compliance with self-isolation for people who have tested positive and their contacts. Data is being compiled an assessment of the effectiveness of the monitoring of adherence to self-isolation has yet to be completed.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 that working age adults living in care homes receive prioritised access to covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There is clear evidence that those living in residential care homes for older adults have a high risk of exposure to infection and are at higher clinical risk of severe disease and mortality. Therefore, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised that this group should be the highest priority for vaccination as part of phase one.
Many younger adults in long-stay nursing and residential care settings will also be eligible for vaccination if they fall into a clinical risk group - for example, those with learning disabilities. Given the likely high risk of exposure in these settings, where a high proportion of the population would be considered eligible, vaccination of the whole resident population is recommended.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Contact Tracing staff have recently been made redundant from the UK-wide symptomatic Covid Testing service; and what the reasons are for those redundancies.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Contact tracing staff are employed by commercial service providers and are separate to those involved with COVID-19 testing. We are not aware of any redundancies among contact tracing staff. Contact tracers are delivered through a number of provisional contracts that allow numbers of tracers to be scaled up and down according to demand.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 ability of NHS Test and Trace to monitor self-isolating pupils.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. Contact tracing in schools is carried out by schools.
Any positive case identified should be reported to the school. The school should then use their risk assessment to identify close contacts of the index case and report cases via the Department for Education’s helpline. Advisors will inform them of any further action that may be required in response to the positive case.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 capacity for regular covid-19 testing for care home employees.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Due to the increasing prevalence of the virus, the existing regime of weekly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing was extended on 23 December 2020 to include two additional weekly lateral flow device (LFD) tests for care home staff. Additionally, the rapid response testing where all staff are tested daily for seven days using LFD test kits in response to a positive test result in tier 4 care homes which was announced on 23 December 2020 was extended to all care homes in England following the national lockdown announcement on 4 January 2021.