Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
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 reduce the waiting list for an assessment for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder in the NHS Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust area.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Integrated care systems (ICSs) and National Health Service trusts in Cumbria and Northumberland should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline ‘Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management’ when commissioning services for their local population. While this guideline does not recommend a maximum waiting time for people to receive an assessment for attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), it includes information aimed at improving diagnosis in adults and children and the quality of care and support received. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with local authorities’ children’s social care, education services and expert charities to support neurodivergent children, including children with ADHD and their families, through the diagnostic process. Data on waiting times for an ADHD assessment are not held centrally.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to undertake an assessment of the impact of changes to the Nursery Milk Scheme’s proposed claims process on the uptake of milk by eligible children.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Nursery Milk Scheme allows registered childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for at least two hours per day. The planned changes will require childcare settings to provide evidence to demonstrate that the claims made are correct, to reduce the risk of fraud and error.
No discussions with milk suppliers have been held concerning these changes. However, the Nursery Milk Reimbursement Unit conducted a survey of 3,790 childcare settings in November 2019 on the impact of the planned changes. The survey included responses from settings which use a milk agent, purchase milk via a local authority and purchase milk itself. The survey invited respondents to estimate how long it would take to upload attendance records and to provide general feedback on the reimbursement process. These responses indicated that 56% of settings estimate less than 10 minutes per claim to meet the new requirements and 34% provided an estimate of between 10 and 30 minutes per claim. The Department considered these findings prior to announcing the proposed changes.
No information is collected on the general use and uptake of milk by childcare settings and we have no plans to make such an assessment. However, information is collected on the number of claims submitted to and paid by the Nursery Milk Scheme. This information is regularly monitored and will be used to review the operation of these changes.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned changes to the Nursery Milk Scheme claims process from 1 August 2022, what discussions his Department had with (a) milk suppliers and (b) education settings before announcing those changes?
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Nursery Milk Scheme allows registered childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for at least two hours per day. The planned changes will require childcare settings to provide evidence to demonstrate that the claims made are correct, to reduce the risk of fraud and error.
No discussions with milk suppliers have been held concerning these changes. However, the Nursery Milk Reimbursement Unit conducted a survey of 3,790 childcare settings in November 2019 on the impact of the planned changes. The survey included responses from settings which use a milk agent, purchase milk via a local authority and purchase milk itself. The survey invited respondents to estimate how long it would take to upload attendance records and to provide general feedback on the reimbursement process. These responses indicated that 56% of settings estimate less than 10 minutes per claim to meet the new requirements and 34% provided an estimate of between 10 and 30 minutes per claim. The Department considered these findings prior to announcing the proposed changes.
No information is collected on the general use and uptake of milk by childcare settings and we have no plans to make such an assessment. However, information is collected on the number of claims submitted to and paid by the Nursery Milk Scheme. This information is regularly monitored and will be used to review the operation of these changes.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned changes to the claims process for the Nursery Milk Scheme from 1 August 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the administrative impact on education settings of those changes.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Nursery Milk Scheme allows registered childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for at least two hours per day. The planned changes will require childcare settings to provide evidence to demonstrate that the claims made are correct, to reduce the risk of fraud and error.
No discussions with milk suppliers have been held concerning these changes. However, the Nursery Milk Reimbursement Unit conducted a survey of 3,790 childcare settings in November 2019 on the impact of the planned changes. The survey included responses from settings which use a milk agent, purchase milk via a local authority and purchase milk itself. The survey invited respondents to estimate how long it would take to upload attendance records and to provide general feedback on the reimbursement process. These responses indicated that 56% of settings estimate less than 10 minutes per claim to meet the new requirements and 34% provided an estimate of between 10 and 30 minutes per claim. The Department considered these findings prior to announcing the proposed changes.
No information is collected on the general use and uptake of milk by childcare settings and we have no plans to make such an assessment. However, information is collected on the number of claims submitted to and paid by the Nursery Milk Scheme. This information is regularly monitored and will be used to review the operation of these changes.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the interim report of the Cass Review, if the Government will adopt the interim advice of reforming the approach to providing gender identity services for children and young people, replacing it with a system where local centres become direct service providers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England is currently considering the interim report of the Cass Review. The Department continues to work with NHS England on how the review’s recommendations can be implemented.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
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 help tackle inequalities in women's health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Our Vision for the Women’s Health Strategy, published in December, set out our ambitions for improving the health and wellbeing of women across England and reducing disparities. It is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-vision-for-the-womens-health-strategy-for-england. We will publish the full Women’s Health Strategy later this year.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) was established to reduce health disparities, including those which affect women. OHID will publish a Health Disparities White Paper with impactful measures to address health disparities at each stage they arise.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the interim report of the Cass Review, published in February 2022, if the Government will adopt the advice set out in that report on reforming the approach to providing gender identity services for children and young people and introduce a system in which local centres become direct service providers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We welcome Dr Cass’ report and look forward to the publication of the full review, which will provide further detail on an improved model of care for children and young people with gender dysphoria.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
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 include provisions for improving access to treatment for the menopause in the forthcoming Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The menopause is a priority topic in Our Vision for the Women’s Health Strategy, which we published on 23rd December 2021, alongside the analytical report of the call for evidence survey. In due course we will publish the full Strategy which will set out our full ambitions in this area.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's long term strategy is to attract, recruit and retain neurology professionals.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is committed to supporting staff and investing in the wider neurological workforce, including nurses and allied health professionals. The NHS People Plan, published in July 2020, sets out measures to support and grow the workforce and strengthen retention in the NHS. We have set up a comprehensive work programme to improve retention and support return to practice, invest in and diversify our training pipeline, and ethically recruit internationally.
Health Education England (HEE) determines the number of medical specialty training posts that are made available each year based on considerations including spending review allocations, strategic priorities for training the medical workforce and an annual process whereby local teams submit recruitment plans for specialty training programmes. Neurology is a popular specialty and generally achieves 100% fill rate for training places.
In July 2021 the Department commissioned HEE to work with partners to review, renew and update the existing long-term strategic framework for the health workforce.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish guidance for medical exemptions for mandatory covid-19 vaccinations for those who work in care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will shortly publish further guidance on vaccination as a condition of deployment in care homes. This will provide further detail around medical exemptions and information on how individuals can check their exemption status.