Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing training to mental health teams on support to children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can now also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is going into its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.
In partnership with NHS England, the Department for Education has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs in early years settings and primary schools.
At the Spending Review, we confirmed that we will deliver on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, roll out mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and expand NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes.
We have also already started piloting Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres. These pilots aim to provide open access care for anyone with a severe mental illness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our aim is to have one Neighbourhood Health Centre in each community that brings together National Health Service, local authority and voluntary sector services in one building to help create a holistic offer that meets the needs of local populations including children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 delayed access to specialist heart valve treatment has on (a) avoidable unscheduled hospitalisations, (b) deaths on waiting lists and (c) other patient outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of delayed access to specialist heart valve disease (HVD) treatment on avoidable unscheduled hospitalisations, deaths on waiting lists, or other patient outcomes.
Cutting waiting times, including for cardiology services, is a key priority for the Government. The cardiology waiting list decreased from 412,164 in September 2024 to 393,400 in September 2025, although this data includes estimates for missing data.
Cardiology is a priority specialty for significant transformation, as outlined in the Elective Reform Plan. The ambition is, where possible and clinically appropriate, to increase specialist care closer to home, and outside of hospitals so that hospital capacity is freed up, enabling patients' timely access to care, as well as improving outcomes.
NHS England has committed to optimising pathways of care for patients with HVD, including earlier detection and improved treatment pathways. To achieve this, the NHS England Cardiac Programme has established an expert advisory group and carried out work including, in 2024/25, providing targeted funding for pathway improvement projects. These included projects that focussed on improving referral processes and local diagnostic pathway provision, as well as fast-tracking patients on valve disease pathways.
To accelerate progress towards the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease modern service framework in 2026.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has made an estimate of the number and proportion of women diagnosed with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who receive timely treatment compared to men.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the count of elective hospital admissions where there was a primary diagnosis of 'aortic stenosis', by patient gender, as well as the median duration from the receipt of referral by the hospital to admission for 2022/23 to 2024/25:
Year | Gender | Total admissions | Number of admissions with a valid waiting time | Median time to admission (days) |
2022/23 | Male | 6,072 | 5,193 | 48 |
2022/23 | Female | 3,600 | 3,073 | 44 |
2023/24 | Male | 6,126 | 5,364 | 47 |
2023/24 | Female | 3,695 | 3,259 | 46 |
2024/25 | Male | 6,615 | 5,822 | 43 |
2024/25 | Female | 4,105 | 3,623 | 42 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to help tackle unequal access to medical treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our 10 Year Health Plan outlines a long-term vision to reform the NHS and make it fit for the future. Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it.Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Disability Unit is taking to embed deaf awareness across Government services.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Disability Unit within Cabinet Office has responsibility for the British Sign Language (BSL) Act 2022, which has created a greater recognition and understanding of BSL and deaf awareness.
The Act requires the government to report on what departments listed in the Act have done to promote or facilitate the use of British Sign Language in their communications with the public, and the third BSL report was published in July 2025.
In addition to overall reporting, each ministerial department has produced a 5 year BSL Plan, published alongside the third BSL report. Within these plans, many government departments have committed to including deaf awareness training for their staff and affiliated public bodies. The Cabinet Office has also committed to raise awareness of BSL and the BSL Act 2022 across the Civil Service to support other departments to deliver their BSL commitments.
Following the passage of the BSL Act, the BSL Advisory board was created to advise the Government on key issues impacting the Deaf community in their everyday life. The Board will continue to work with the BSL Advisory Board, Deaf people and their representative organisations, and with Ministers across government, including the Lead Ministers for Disability.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 ensure the switch from analogue to digital health services is inclusive of people whose first language is British Sign Language.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has set out a commitment to make the NHS App British Sign Language accessible in the 10-Year Health Plan, which covers the period to 2035.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 ensure greater provision of British Sign Language across the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters to support patients in the community.
All National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including people using BSL.
On 30 June 2025, a revised AIS was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using these services.
I also recently attended and spoke at a parliamentary event highlighting the BSL Advisory Board health and social care report and we will be considering its findings.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking as part of the new curriculum to develop a culture of reading for pleasure in schools.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department knows that reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a range of benefits.
That is why we are launching the National Year of Reading 2026, in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust. It aims to address long-term declines in reading enjoyment through engaging new audiences, reshaping public attitudes and building the systems needed to embed lasting, meaningful change.
The government has also committed £27.7 million this financial year to support and drive high and rising standards in reading. This includes supporting the teaching of phonics, early language and reading for pleasure via the English Hubs programme.
Following the recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, we will revise the English curriculum to ensure that we give every child rock solid foundations in oracy, reading and writing, and an improved key stage 3 that re-engages pupils and prevents their learning from stagnating.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 ensure councils implement the requirements of the Care Act 2014 on Individual Service Funds.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, everyone whose needs are met by the local authority (LA) must receive a personal budget as part of the care and support plan. The budget sets out how much of the cost of care will be met by the LA and how much will be met by the adult.
Individual Service Funds (ISFs) are one of the ways in which the personal budget can be deployed. It allows for a third-party provider to hold and manage the budget on behalf of the individual.
Guidance on ISFs is set out in the Care and Support Statutory (CASS) Guidance, issued under the Care Act 2014. The CASS guidance sets out that LAs should offer ISFs where possible and provide clear information on how they work. Where an ISF arrangement is not available locally, the LA should explore arrangements to develop this offer and should be receptive to requests to create arrangements with specified providers.
In addition, and supported by the Department, Think Local Act Personal has produced guidance for LAs on ISFs, which can be found on their website, at the following link:
The Care Quality Commission is assessing how well LAs in England are delivering adult social care by looking at how they are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. The assessments identify LAs strengths and areas for improvement, facilitating the sharing of good practice and helping us to target support where it is most needed.
The Department has not had discussions with LAs specifically on the effectiveness of the implementation of ISFs under the Care Act 2014.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her planned timetable is for the primary school library rollout.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has responsibility for the Dormant Assets Scheme, which is providing funding to support the primary school library commitment, previously announced by the Chancellor.
Through the Scheme, £132.5 million has been allocated to increasing disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability over the long term. This includes a commitment to ensuring that every primary school in England has a library space by the end of this Parliament.
The Government is working with The National Lottery Community Fund to co-design the programme and develop more of the specifics around its delivery. Further details will be announced in due course, including expected timelines.