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 she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing (a) transitional protections and (b) alternative arrangements for long-serving NHS employees who retired, accessed their NHS pension and subsequently returned to NHS employment in circumstances where they were not made aware that doing so could substantially reduce their contractual redundancy entitlement.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing transitional protections or alternative arrangements for staff who have previously claimed pension benefits.
Redundancy terms for National Health Service staff on the Agenda for Change contract in England are set out under Section 16 of the NHS Staff Terms and Conditions of Service handbook, a set of terms collectively agreed by national collective bargaining structures including the NHS Staff Council. This also applies to other NHS staff whose redundancy terms refer to Section 16 of the Agenda for Change contract in England.
Claiming pension benefits, such as via retire and return, does not mean that NHS staff are ineligible for redundancy payments. However, taking pension benefits may change the way in which contractual redundancy payments are calculated.
The handbook states that service used for the purposes of calculating previous pension benefits will not count for the calculation of a contractual redundancy payment. Statutory redundancy entitlements are unaffected.
The Department commissions NHS Employers to provide guidance for employers on a range of topics, including NHS redundancy arrangements and retirement options, which they can then use to communicate with their staff.
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 her Department provides to (a) NHS employees considering retire-and-return arrangements regarding the potential effect of accessing their NHS pension on their future contractual redundancy entitlement and (b) to NHS employers on ensuring that staff are informed of any significant reduction in redundancy protection before making a decision to retire and return.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing transitional protections or alternative arrangements for staff who have previously claimed pension benefits.
Redundancy terms for National Health Service staff on the Agenda for Change contract in England are set out under Section 16 of the NHS Staff Terms and Conditions of Service handbook, a set of terms collectively agreed by national collective bargaining structures including the NHS Staff Council. This also applies to other NHS staff whose redundancy terms refer to Section 16 of the Agenda for Change contract in England.
Claiming pension benefits, such as via retire and return, does not mean that NHS staff are ineligible for redundancy payments. However, taking pension benefits may change the way in which contractual redundancy payments are calculated.
The handbook states that service used for the purposes of calculating previous pension benefits will not count for the calculation of a contractual redundancy payment. Statutory redundancy entitlements are unaffected.
The Department commissions NHS Employers to provide guidance for employers on a range of topics, including NHS redundancy arrangements and retirement options, which they can then use to communicate with their staff.
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 the effectiveness of Newborn Behavioural Observations and the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale within NHS maternity, health visiting and perinatal mental health services.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) and Newborn Behavioural Observations (NBO) are tools used to observe newborn behaviour. The NBAS is a more detailed assessment, while the NBO is more commonly used to support parent-infant relationships by helping parents understand their baby’s cues, communication, and capabilities.
The evidence base is small and of limited quality, although it suggests potential benefits for parental confidence, responsiveness, and early bonding. A Cochrane review concluded that further research is needed before wider recommendation.
It is for individual National Health Service trusts to decide whether staff should use and be trained in these tools, therefore no assessment has been made of their use within the NHS.
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 his Department periodically reviews the eligibility criteria for Medical Exemption Certificates granting free NHS prescriptions; and on what basis those criteria are chosen.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We keep all policies under regular review. This Government is also continuing to take action to make prescriptions more affordable for everyone, including freezing prescription charges for the 2026/27 financial year, both for single prescriptions and the three month and annual prescription prepayment certificates commonly used for long-term conditions.
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.