Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the national gird infrastructure's resilience to hazards caused by climate change in (a) Broxtowe, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Maintaining a secure and resilient energy system is a top priority for Government. We work continually with industry to improve and maintain the resilience and security of energy infrastructure, considering a range of evolving risks and hazards – including changing climate.

The National Energy System Operator, an independent technical body, delivers resilience functions, including understanding and planning system resilience.

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 reduce the number of missed GP appointments in i) Broxtowe ii) Nottinghamshire and iii) England.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Missed appointments, recorded as did not attends (DNAs), are collected through General Practice Appointment Data. Nationally, there were 1.27 million DNAs out of 31 million booked appointments, representing 4.1% of all appointments.

In Nottinghamshire, there were approximately 320,000 DNAs from 8.3 million booked appointments, the equivalent to 3.85% of appointments, which is below the national average. In Broxtowe, there were 21,450 DNAs out of 727,000 booked appointments, representing 3% of appointments, lower than both the Nottinghamshire and national rates.

NHS England currently advises that local National Health Service organisations and general practices make their own arrangements for preventing and dealing with missed appointments. Practices already proactively try to reduce rates of missed appointments by sending text message or email reminders, improving their processes for cancelling or rebooking via their online systems, and by providing flexibility in scheduling, for example by allowing last-minute changes from in-person appointments to remote sessions.

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 the growth of the learning disability workforce, including addressing the reduction in the number of learning disability nurses, as part of the Government's reforms for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision for children and young people.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government wants every child to have the best start in life, with help available earlier and locally when families need it. As set out in the King’s Speech, the Government is committed to raising standards in schools and introducing generational reform to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. These reforms will be brought forward in legislation through the upcoming Education for All Bill.

The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have worked closely with the Department for Education on the reforms. Continued close partnership between health, social care, and education will be needed to realise the opportunity created by these crucial reforms.

To supplement the student loans which are the main support for all students in England, the Department of Health and Social Care provides eligible healthcare students with a non-repayable grant of at least £5,000 per academic year via the NHS Learning Support Fund. Students undertaking priority specialisms such as mental health nursing and learning disability nursing can receive an additional incentive payment.

The Government is also investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce to support children and young people with SEND, including learning disability. This includes £26 million to train more educational psychologists and £15 million to enable more speech and language therapists to work in education settings.