Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
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 tackle the shortfall in clinical psychologists; and whether he plans to provide additional funding for clinical psychology training places in the next financial year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual National Health Service trusts. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
Clinical psychologists are an essential component of the NHS workforce. NHS England’s workforce growth commitment has included significant investment to double the number of NHS commissioned Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training places since 2019/20 to just under 1,100 places in 2024. It is expected this level of commissions will be sustained in the 2025/26 financial year.
However, we know that the NHS has been facing workforce shortages for a number of years and, while there has been growth in the mental health workforce over recent years, more is needed. That is why, as part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.
We are working with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside the refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan, which will revolve around the three shifts to deliver our 10 Year Plan, specifically: moving more care from hospitals to communities; making better use of technology in health and care; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2025 to Question 28573 on Brain: Tumours, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including grading in the national cancer plan to help improve (a) treatment and (b) outcomes for brain tumour patients.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours, at any grade. The Government has invested in new lifesaving and life-improving research, supporting those diagnosed and living with brain tumours.
In September 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for all cancer patients including those with brain tumours. However, we do not expect to consider the grading of brain tumours as part of the National Cancer Plan.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
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 when the NHS will be able to meet the target of 92% of people waiting for elective mental health treatment waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to their first treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The overall elective waiting list stands at 7.48 million patient pathways, with over six million people waiting. We are committed to putting patients first, making sure that patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.
As set out in the Government’s Plan for Change, we will ensure that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015. This includes those patients waiting for mental health services where a referral is made to a medical consultant-led mental health service. The majority of National Health Service mental health care is outside the scope of the elective waiting list and the referral to treatment 18-week constitutional standard.
We know that too many people with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure that mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on hospitals.
The NHS Planning Guidance 2025/26 includes objectives to increase the number of children and young people accessing services to achieve the national ambition for 345,000 additional children and young people aged zero to 25 years old compared to 2019, and to reduce 12 hour accident and emergency waits. We will also ensure every young person has access to a mental health professional at school, and will set up Young Futures hubs in communities, offering open access mental health services for young people.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of excluding measures of grading in brain tumour diagnosis on his targets for cancer diagnosis set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The target for earlier cancer diagnosis is to diagnose more cancers at stages 1 and 2, because when cancer is diagnosed earlier, there are more potential treatment options and the likelihood of successful treatment is higher. The grading of brain tumours is not directly comparable to the staging of cancers because brain tumours at grade 1 and grade 2 are not considered cancerous. Only brain tumours at grades 3 and 4 are classed as cancerous.
The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people applied for undergraduate pre-registration midwifery courses in each year since 2015.
Answered by Will Quince
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publish data on the number of applicants to midwifery courses in England. The number of applicants between 2018-19 and 2021-22 are shown in the table below.
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
Applicants | 8,140 | 8,750 | 11,040 | 10,340 |
|
|
|
|
|
Source: UCAS end of cycle 2022, published at the following link:
Published UCAS data only covers the period from 2018-19 onwards.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of scans and health checks completed by the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
Diagnostic checks, including scans, are a key part of many elective care pathways. The Department’s ambition is that 95% of patients needing a diagnostic check receive it within six weeks by March 2025. According to data published in November 2022, approximately 73% are receiving a check within six weeks. Community Diagnostic Centres have delivered more than 2.7 million additional checks as of December 2022.
Delivery of the NHS Health Check programme, which is commissioned by local Government, was largely suspended between April 2020 and February 2022 due to the pandemic and in line with national guidance from NHS England. Data shows most local authorities have made positive steps to recover the service, reaching 81% of pre-pandemic activity between July and September 2022.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the speed of hospital discharges.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
On 9 January 2023, the Government committed a further £200 million to fund short-term National Health Service step-down care packages. Integrated care boards, working closely with local authorities, will use this to purchase places in care homes and other settings, such as hospices, as well as to help fund wrap-around primary and community health services to support patients’ recovery. NHS England expect that this will allow an additional 2,500 – 3,000 patients to be discharged from hospital into other care settings, freeing up much needed acute beds and clinical capacity.
The Government has also provided an extra £50 million in capital funding to expand ambulance hubs and hospital discharge lounges to help improve the flow of patients through hospitals and the speed of hospital discharges. This complements and builds on the £500 million adult social care discharge fund announced in September 2022, which can be used to fund a much wider range of measures to support discharge, including domiciliary care packages and measures to boost workforce capacity.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many students applied for (a) nursing and (b) midwifery undergraduate courses in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
46,565 students applied for nursing courses and 10,340 students applied for midwifery courses at the end of the 2022 application cycle, according to data published by The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
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 protect the most clinically vulnerable from covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The shielding programme ended on 15 September 2021. People previously considered clinically extremely vulnerable are advised to follow general guidance, while considering additional precautions to reduce the risk of infection. On 24 December 2021, updated public health advice was issued, which is available at the following link:
In addition, updated public health advice was issued for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19. This is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-riskNHS England and NHS Improvement have written to general practices and hospital trusts in England to raise awareness of this new guidance.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
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 capacity of the UK’s covid-19 testing infrastructure in comparison to other countries.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No specific assessment has been made as robust data on international capacity is not held.