Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of Band 7 CBT therapist posts created in each of the last five years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table attached shows the growth in the relevant subsection of the NHS Talking Therapies workforce over the five years to 2024. The high intensity workforce, which includes cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) therapists, increased by 2,582 between 2019 and 2024 to 6,913 full time equivalent therapists. The number of qualified, Band 7 or over, CBT therapists grew over the same period by 1,049 to 3,853 full time equivalents.
This data is published through the mental health national workforce census at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/mental-health-national-workforce-census/
The NHS Talking Therapies workforce includes staff employed by National Health Service providers and also staff in NHS-commissioned independent, local authority, and voluntary sector providers.
The data is not available for Lambeth and Southwark as local data by service is not held centrally.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) NHS Talking Therapy trainees and (b) Band 7 CBT therapist posts have been created in (i) Lambeth and (ii) Southwark in each of the last five years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table attached shows the growth in the relevant subsection of the NHS Talking Therapies workforce over the five years to 2024. The high intensity workforce, which includes cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) therapists, increased by 2,582 between 2019 and 2024 to 6,913 full time equivalent therapists. The number of qualified, Band 7 or over, CBT therapists grew over the same period by 1,049 to 3,853 full time equivalents.
This data is published through the mental health national workforce census at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/mental-health-national-workforce-census/
The NHS Talking Therapies workforce includes staff employed by National Health Service providers and also staff in NHS-commissioned independent, local authority, and voluntary sector providers.
The data is not available for Lambeth and Southwark as local data by service is not held centrally.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 the number of applications for NHS Talking Therapies trainee positions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take through the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan to reduce vacancy rates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the vacancy rate for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon training posts or consultant positions.
We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.
NHS England publishes quarterly NHS hospital trust vacancy and job advert data. The publication sets out vacancy rates for total NHS staff and, separately, for registered nurses and doctors at a national and regional level. The latest data for December 2024 shows the vacancy rate for doctors was 5.2%. The data is not detailed enough to identify vacancy rates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon consultants. Further information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the vacancy rate of (a) Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon training posts and (b) Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon consultants.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the vacancy rate for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon training posts or consultant positions.
We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.
NHS England publishes quarterly NHS hospital trust vacancy and job advert data. The publication sets out vacancy rates for total NHS staff and, separately, for registered nurses and doctors at a national and regional level. The latest data for December 2024 shows the vacancy rate for doctors was 5.2%. The data is not detailed enough to identify vacancy rates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon consultants. Further information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 existing Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon training pathway.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. To become an oral maxillofacial surgeon, surgeons will need to meet the requirements of both the General Medical Council and General Dental Council, who are responsible for the standard of training for doctors and dentists respectively.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 support prospective students training to become Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons with the costs of dual degree qualifications.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A qualification in both medicine and dentistry is required to become an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon.
If studying medicine or dentistry as a first degree, domestic students can access student loans from Student Finance England (SFE) from years one to four. From year five of an undergraduate course, and from year two of a graduate-entry course, medical and dental students can access the NHS Bursary. The NHS Bursary is non-repayable, and comprises of payments towards tuition fees and, where eligible, further grants and allowances.
Students undertaking an undergraduate medical or dental course as a second degree are expected to self-fund their tuition fees for the first four years, but can apply to SFE for a means-tested maintenance loan. From their fifth year, eligible students can apply for the NHS Bursary.
Medical and dental students who study the second degree via an accelerated graduate-entry course can apply to SFE for a partial tuition fee loan, and a partially means-tested maintenance loan in year one. They can then apply for an NHS Bursary from the second year of study.
For the 2025 to 2026 academic year, the Government has announced that maximum loans and grants for living and other costs from SFE will increase by the forecast inflation of 3.1%. The Government will also increase the NHS Bursary tuition fee contributions, maintenance grants, and all allowances by 3.1% for the 2025 to 2026 academic year.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on increasing the use of symptomatic FIT for patients with suspected bowel cancer symptoms within General Practice.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening program currently invites people aged 56 to 74 years old for a screening every two years. However, this age cohort is being expanded to people aged 50 to 74 years old in 2025, with the use of Faecal Immunochemical Test kits which can be sent directly to people's homes.
Furthermore, the National Health Service is prioritising the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics, including for those with bowel cancer.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make the data on the use of symptomatic FIT for patients with suspected bowel cancer symptoms across each ICB publicly available.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the data at an integrated care board level, however, data for the number of lower gastrointestinal referrals, at a practice level, with a Faecal Immunochemical Test attached, is publicly available through the Investment and Impact Fund. It can be found in the monthly data by the following codes: CAN03; and CAN04.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total amount of research funding spent on lobular breast cancer research was in 2023- 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority.
We are proud to have invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.
On 4 February 2025 the Department announced that nearly 700,000 women across the country will take part in a world-leading trial to test how cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools can be used to catch breast cancer cases earlier. The Early Detection using Information Technology in Health trial is backed by £11 million of Government support via NIHR. The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including lobular breast cancer.