Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance is issued to local authorities, Family Hubs and NHS services on delivering evidence-based parent–infant relationship support in the first 1,001 days following birth.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
We understand the importance of parent-infant relationships on a baby’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development. That is why we are committed to improving parent-infant relationship support.
Through Healthy Babies, we are investing £109 million in 75 local authorities in areas with high levels of deprivation to enhance parent-infant relationship support. In March 2026 we published guidance to local authorities setting out our expectations for how this funding should be used. The expectations have a particular focus on providing information and advice, building workforce capability and capacity, joining up support locally, as well as providing easy access to high quality, evidence-based services and support. The guidance also sets ambitions for those local authorities not receiving Healthy Babies funding to build the foundations for this provision where possible.
The Department has recently refreshed the Healthy Child Programme Guidance for practitioners, providers, and local authorities, which includes the importance of providing support in the transition to parenthood, including evidence-based parent-infant relationship support. Transition to parenthood is one of the six high impact areas for health visiting.
In addition, NHS England routinely identifies and disseminates best practice and learning across National Health Services and clinical networks to support local delivery of parent-infant relationship support.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department collects on outcomes for babies and parents receiving parent–infant relationship support in the first 1,001 days following birth.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
We understand the importance of parent-infant relationships on a baby’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development. That is why we are committed to improving parent-infant relationship support.
Health visiting services provide parenting support to all families through the national Healthy Child Programme, funded through the Public Health Grant. This includes advice on parent-infant relationships as well as responsive parenting, infant behaviour, and wider support as needed. The Department is collecting the number of local authorities that provide parenting and behaviour services, with publication planned for Autumn 2026.
Through Healthy Babies, we are investing £109 million to provide enhanced parent-infant relationship support in 75 local authorities areas with high levels of deprivation. Through our management information data, we know that in March 2025, there were 520 fully or partially funded parent-infant relationship and perinatal mental health services across the funded local authorities. Further information is available at the following link:
We are working to expand our data collection, and, from April 2026, we have been asking all 153 local authorities to report on services delivered through the Best Start Family Hub network.
We are also investing in independent evaluation of Healthy Babies to understand which interventions and delivery elements have an impact, for whom, and in what contexts.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department collects on the provision of parent–infant relationship support in the first 1,001 days following birth.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
We understand the importance of parent-infant relationships on a baby’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development. That is why we are committed to improving parent-infant relationship support.
Health visiting services provide parenting support to all families through the national Healthy Child Programme, funded through the Public Health Grant. This includes advice on parent-infant relationships as well as responsive parenting, infant behaviour, and wider support as needed. The Department is collecting the number of local authorities that provide parenting and behaviour services, with publication planned for Autumn 2026.
Through Healthy Babies, we are investing £109 million to provide enhanced parent-infant relationship support in 75 local authorities areas with high levels of deprivation. Through our management information data, we know that in March 2025, there were 520 fully or partially funded parent-infant relationship and perinatal mental health services across the funded local authorities. Further information is available at the following link:
We are working to expand our data collection, and, from April 2026, we have been asking all 153 local authorities to report on services delivered through the Best Start Family Hub network.
We are also investing in independent evaluation of Healthy Babies to understand which interventions and delivery elements have an impact, for whom, and in what contexts.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 trends in the level of variation between local authorities in the provision of parent–infant relationship support as part of the Healthy Child Programme and Family Hubs.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
We understand the importance of parent-infant relationships on a baby’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development. That is why we are committed to improving parent-infant relationship support.
Health visiting services provide parenting support to all families through the national Healthy Child Programme, funded through the Public Health Grant. This includes advice on parent-infant relationships as well as responsive parenting, infant behaviour, and wider support as needed. The Department is collecting the number of local authorities that provide parenting and behaviour services, with publication planned for Autumn 2026.
Through Healthy Babies, we are investing £109 million to provide enhanced parent-infant relationship support in 75 local authorities areas with high levels of deprivation. Through our management information data, we know that in March 2025, there were 520 fully or partially funded parent-infant relationship and perinatal mental health services across the funded local authorities. Further information is available at the following link:
We are working to expand our data collection, and, from April 2026, we have been asking all 153 local authorities to report on services delivered through the Best Start Family Hub network.
We are also investing in independent evaluation of Healthy Babies to understand which interventions and delivery elements have an impact, for whom, and in what contexts.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the size of the Public Health Grant provided to local authorities is proportional to the population of each local authority.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Public Health Grant allocations have been confirmed for the next three years to enable local authorities to plan and make the best use of the funding available. The majority of funding which makes up the Public Health Grant will continue to be distributed as in previous years with an equal percentage uplift, ensuring that the most deprived local authorities continue to receive on average more than twice as much funding per person as the least deprived. During this period, we are also using bespoke methods, which consider deprivation and service need, to distribute the previously separate funding components for smoking and addiction services which have now been consolidated into the Public Health Grant.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government plans to publish the response to the Covid-19 Inquiry Module 4 recommendations on the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Inquiry published its report relating to the development of COVID-19 vaccines and the implementation of the vaccine deployment programme on 16 April 2026. The Government will consider the findings and recommendations in detail and will respond within six months of publication, by 16 October 2026. The Government remains committed to learning the lessons needed from the COVID-19 Inquiry to protect and prepare us for the future.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 ensure Parkinson's patients are supported with speech and language therapy.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Speech and language therapy provision is commissioned locally by integrated care boards. NHS England has revised the national service specification for specialised neurology following extensive consultation with clinical and charity partners. The service specification, published in August 2025, includes guidance on both specialised and core neurology services. The specification includes an annex which provides greater clarity for neurology sub-specialties, including movement disorders, under which Parkinson’s disease would fall. The annex states that integrated care systems (ICSs) should have local access to a multi-disciplinary team within their region. This should include speech and language therapists, as well as other allied health professionals.
Additionally, the national specialised commissioning neurology transformation programme has developed guidance as part of an ICS toolkit, specifically to support the implementation of the service specification.
As of January 2025, there are over 7,700 full-time equivalent speech and language therapists employed in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is an increase of over 300, or 4.7%, compared to the previous year, and over 1,400, or 23.6%, compared to five years ago.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are plans to deliver capital funding to local ICB's to support local training hubs or centres for dental development to support dental workforce recruitment and retention, especially in rural and coastal areas like North Devon.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the North Devon constituency, this is the Devon ICB.
ICBs receive allocations of capital funding each year to cover primary care requirements and overall strategic objectives. They are able to use the capital on dental facilities should they consider that a priority. In 2026/27, the funding available across all ICBs is £122 million for primary care, and £195 million for overall strategic objectives.
We are determined to rebuild NHS dentistry and deliver a dentistry service fit for the future. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan and ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.
We are also committed to fundamentally reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to provide additional funding to support the delivery of the dental hygienist apprenticeship where the cost of clinical training exceeds the apprenticeship funding band.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Government recognises the important role that dental care professionals, including dental hygienists, play in the delivery of National Health Service dentistry.
The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for managing the apprenticeship levy and setting the funding rules for employers.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 adequacy of capacity for the General Dental Council’s Overseas Registration Examination; and what discussions he has had with the General Dental Council on reducing waiting times for Part 2 of that examination and on the affordability of recent increases in examination fees for overseas-qualified dentists.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Government recognises the challenges faced by overseas-qualified dentists seeking to sit the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE), particularly in relation to waiting times.
The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dental professionals in the United Kingdom and therefore is responsible for determining the standards that professionals wishing to practise in the UK must meet in order to be registered.
The GDC has recently put in place a new delivery contract which will significantly increase capacity across both parts of the ORE. This represents an unprecedented expansion in exam throughput, with capacity for Part 1 and Part 2 sittings expected to increase to 2,400 and 1,500 places per year respectively. Overall, the expansion is projected to deliver a more than fivefold increase in the number of overseas-qualified dentists able to complete the ORE and join the register by 2028. This significant increase in capacity will enable greater throughput of the examination and is therefore expected to reduce waiting times for ORE candidates over the coming years. In addition, the GDC is developing a new candidate portal, including a revised booking system, as part of the new contract. This is due to be in place for exams scheduled in 2027.
As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the appropriate fee level to effectively run the ORE examination. The GDC has indicated that the fee increase is necessary to support greatly expanded capacity under the new contract, including specialist facilities, examiners, quality assurance, and VAT on delivery costs.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England provides an alternative route for overseas-trained dentists, the License in Dental Surgery. In March 2026, the Government announced grant funding to support an expansion of this examination route, which is expected to increase final exam places tenfold by 2028, from approximately 180 to a projected 1,800.