Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate on the waiting times for (a) assessment for and (b) diagnosis of autism in (i) adults and (ii) children in Lewisham East constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not held centrally, but may be held by individual providers or integrated care boards (ICBs). Some relevant information is available on autism assessment waiting times for the NHS South East London ICB. In December 2023, the NHS South East London ICB’s Autism Waiting Time Statistics show that there were a total of 1,425 patients with an open suspected autism referral. 100 of these patients were aged between 0 and 17 years old, and 1,325 of these patients were aged 18 years old and over.
The median waiting time of all patients in this ICB, with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was in the quarter, was 545 days. For 0 to 17 year olds, the median number of days patients waited was 149 days, compared to 606 days for over 18 year olds.
Data on children and young people in this dataset is expected to be an underestimate, and caution should be used when interpreting these statistics, since they are experimental rather than official statistics. The majority of children assessed for autism in the United Kingdom are seen in child development services, which are out of the scope of this dataset. This means the published figures will underestimate the volume of referrals or diagnoses, and the associated impact on health services. NHS England continues to conduct exploratory analysis into the Community Services Dataset, with a view to including autism waiting times data from that dataset.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to work with local authorities to increase access to support services for people with autism.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Our national autism strategy, published in July 2021, acknowledges the importance of autistic people being able to access community support, including social care, and that this support should be available at the right time, and tailored to autistic people’s needs. We are currently updating the Autism Act Statutory Guidance to support the National Health Service and local authorities in delivering improved outcomes for autistic people. This will include setting out what local authorities must and should be doing to support autistic adults.
Under the Care Act 2014, it is the responsibility of local authorities to assess individuals’ care and support needs, including those of autistic adults, and, where eligible, to meet those needs. A new duty for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to assess local authorities’ delivery of their Care Act 2014 duties, went live on 1 April 2023, and the formal assessment period has started. The CQC will examine how well local authorities deliver their Care Act duties, including those that apply to autistic people with care and support needs. This will increase transparency and accountability and, most importantly, drive improved outcomes for people who draw on care and support.
Each integrated care board (ICB) must have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, to support them in delivering care and support for autistic people in their area. NHS England has published statutory guidance on these Executive Lead roles. Key areas of the Executive Lead role include, but are not limited to: supporting the board in developing a strategic plan for people with a learning disability and autistic people, with local authorities and wider partners; using joint commissioning principles to work together to facilitate appropriate community support, care, and housing; and enabling people to live well at home. It also includes working with local authorities, primary care networks, place-based partnerships, provider collaboratives, health care providers, and wider partners to address inequalities in health outcomes for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons publication entitled Report on an unannounced inspection of HMYOI Wetherby by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (20 November – 7 December 2023), published on 5 March 2024, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for routine dental treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England has advised that, since the inspection, the waiting time for a routine dental appointment at HM Wetherby Young Offenders Institute (HMYOI) has reduced from 15 weeks to 12 weeks, with all patients triaged to ensure all urgent or pain related cases are expedited appropriately. Orthodontist services are also available.
Healthcare services continue to provide regular weekly dental clinics at HMYOI Wetherby, and non-attendance at appointments has reduced, with the involvement of an allocated healthcare officer. Work is also underway to re-procure dental healthcare services in secure children’s settings, which will further improve access and reduce waits.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of dentistry provision in the youth secure estate.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has statutory responsibility for the direct commissioning of health services in the children and young people secure estate. Intercollegiate Healthcare Standards for children and young people in secure settings were first published in 2013 to support high quality healthcare provision for children in secure settings, and were refreshed in 2023. These standards are available at the following link:
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/healthcare-standards-children-young-people-secure-settings
They formed the basis of an outcome-based dental service specification, which is available at the following link:
All children in the secure estate receive individualised care according to need and following an assessment via the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool. This is an evidence based, validated health assessment tool for under 18-year-olds, which screens for physical health, substance misuse, mental health and neurodisability. This would include any dental care needs.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of young people in the youth secure estate being reported as having tooth decay in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has statutory responsibility for the direct commissioning of health services in the children and young people secure estate. All children in the secure estate receive individualised care, following an assessment via the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool. This is an evidence based, validated health assessment tool for under 18-year-olds, which screens for physical health, substance misuse, mental health and neurodisability. This would include any dental care needs. Data on the number of young people in the youth secure estate reported as having tooth decay is not held centrally.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 30 November 2023 and (b) 10 January 2024 from the hon. Member for Lewisham East, case reference JD39544.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The department has received the correspondence from the hon. Member and has provided a response in PO-1484241. With apologies, this case was delayed as part of our continued backlog of cases following the pandemic and we are currently working through an urgent recovery plan to resolve this.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the statutory guidance on promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children published on 17 March 2015, if she will review and update that guidance.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government committed to update the statutory guidance, Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children, in the February 2023 children’s social care strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love. This commitment includes extending the guidance to care leavers and was reaffirmed in the Government’s response to the strategy’s consultation, issued in September 2023.
While a timeframe for completing the update has not been published, the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care continue to work together to complete this work and have commenced engagement with stakeholders.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to improve the provision of mental health care across the youth secure estate.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England has statutory responsibility for the direct commissioning of health services or facilities in the secure estate for children and young people, including for mental health services
Within this estate, the Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS) allows for a trauma informed, collaborative approach to care, assessment and the planning of sentences and interventions, regardless of previous diagnosis. This includes input from mental health staff as well as from social care professionals, education professionals and the operational staff working on a day-to-day basis at the setting.
It also seeks to ensure that staff have the right skills and support to care for the children and young people appropriately. NHS England has continued to support the implementation and sustainability of the framework in the estate, in partnership with Youth Custody Service and the Department for Education.
As well as this, intercollegiate healthcare standards for children and young people in secure settings were first published in 2013. These standards were developed to help improve the quality and consistency of healthcare available to children in secure settings and have been refreshed in 2023. The standards benchmark NHS England’s core outcome based service specifications, including a specific specification for mental health services, which was also refreshed in 2023.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 17 October 2023 and (b) 23 November 2023 from the hon. Member for Lewisham East, case reference JD36657.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I replied to the hon. Member on 8 December 2023.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 22 November 2023 to Question 1712 on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Drugs, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of her Department’s processes to (a) manage and (b) mitigate problems in the supply of medicines used for the management of ADHD.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medicine supply problems can occur for several reasons; for example, they can be due to manufacturing difficulties, regulatory problems, problems with the supply of raw materials, sudden demand spikes or from issues which are related to the distribution of the product.
We have well-established processes for managing and mitigating medicine supply issues, which involve working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.
Disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, which are expected to resolve by the end of 2023 or in early 2024.