Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all staff working in mental health services are given equality and diversity training.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All substantively employed staff working in the National Health Service are expected to carry out equality and diversity training as part of their mandatory training requirements. As statutory employers, NHS trusts may choose to enhance the training made available to their staff to address specific workforce needs or those of the population that they serve.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether differentials in salary bands will be maintained between care staff and senior care staff within the Cost of Care model.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund required local authorities to work collaboratively with adult social care providers to conduct evidence-based Cost of Care exercises, to support them in building a shared understanding of the local costs for delivering care, including for categories such as staff pay. However, the pay and terms and conditions for care workers are set independent of central government. When commissioning services from providers, their Care Act 2014 duties require local authorities to assure themselves that their fees enable appropriate staff renumeration, so as to retain an effective workforce.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide a fully funded plan (1) to meet the needs of (a) older, and (b) disabled, people and their carers, and (2) to address the staffing crisis in social care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is making available up to £7.5 billion in additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge. This historic funding boost will ensure that local authorities can continue to meet the eligible care and support needs of people in their area and deliver tangible improvements to social care services.
We remain committed to the 10 year vision set out in the People at the Heart of Care white paper, which covers older and disabled people and their carers. We will shortly publish a plan for adult social care system reform. The plan will build on the progress made so far to implement the 10 year vision set out in the People at the Heart of Care white paper.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that medical care is not disrupted during the junior doctor strikes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service makes every effort through rigorous contingency planning to minimise disruption and its impact on patients and the public during industrial action.
In the case of recent strikes by junior doctors, the NHS had plans in place to engage consultants, Speciality and Associate Specialist doctors and allied health professionals to provide cover. Where necessary, trusts also cancelled non-urgent appointments to prioritise urgent and emergency care.
We are urging the British Medical Association junior doctors committee to approach talks constructively for the sake of both patients and their own members.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the mental wellbeing of paramedics.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is our priority to support the mental health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff, including paramedics. NHS England have developed a comprehensive emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support package for all NHS staff.
For paramedics, NHS England are continuing to work closely with Ambulance Trusts to ensure there is a longer-term health and wellbeing offer that has a focus on prevention. For 2022/23 NHS England are also working in collaboration with Ambulance Trusts to develop rehabilitation pathways for staff who have been on long term sickness and improve the mental health of call centre staff in particular. Further, NHS England have funded an ambulance sector specific Suicide Prevention pathway to provide immediate support 24 hours a day, seven days a week for staff experiencing suicidal ideation.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce poverty-related health inequalities.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government announced on 24 January 2023 that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy, with an interim report to be published in the summer. The strategy will set out a policy agenda undertaking a shift to integrated, whole-person care, and will also apply a geographical lens to each condition to address regional disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030. Interventions set out in the strategy will aim to alleviate pressure on the health system, as well as support the Government’s objective to increase healthy life expectancy and reduce ill-health-related labour market inactivity.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to directly invest in the work of community pharmacies and further increase the benefit they have to local communities.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion each year to the sector and outlines the joint vision of the Government, NHS England, and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee for how community pharmacy will become more integrated into the National Health Service, deliver more clinical services, and become the first port of call for minor illnesses.
In September 2022, following negotiation with the sector, we announced an additional one-off £100 million investment into pharmacy for the remainder of the five-year deal. This most recent agreement continues the expansion of the services offered by community pharmacies to local communities.
We continue to discuss with the sector what more community pharmacies could do, making use of their valuable skills for the benefit of patients and the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent further disruption to the NHS given the industrial action taken by nurses.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The priority is to keep patients safe during any industrial action. NHS England makes every effort to minimise disruption during industrial action, working with providers, professional bodies, trade unions and other bodies to agree safe levels of cover.
On 2 March, the Government invited the NHS Staff Council, who represent Agenda for Change unions, to join a series of intensive talks covering pay, terms and conditions improvements and productivity enhancing reforms. Unions representing the majority of ambulance workers, nurses, physiotherapists, porters, cleaners and other non-medical staff have now agreed to pause strikes and enter a process of intensive talks.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the difference in the pay scales for adult and children’s social care staff.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. Part of this increased investment will enable an additional 345,000 children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health support.
In recognition of the increased demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic, we invested an extra £79 million in 2021/22 to expand children’s mental health services, including enabling approximately 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services, 2,000 more to access eating disorder services and accelerating the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges.
NHS England has consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its Clinically-led Review of NHS Access Standards, including that children, young people and their families, presenting to community-based mental health services should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. As a first step, NHS England has recently shared and promoted guidance with its local system partners to consistently report waiting times to support the development of a baseline position. The Department is now working with NHS England on the next steps for introducing the new access and waiting time standards for mental health services.
Assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may also happen through child and adolescent mental health services. Building on last year’s investment of £13 million through the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Mental Health Recovery Plan, we will invest £2.5 million in 2022/23 to test and embed improved autism diagnostic pathways.
NHS England are developing a national framework to set out the process of how children, young people and adults should receive an autism diagnosis. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of these diagnostic processes and reduce waiting times.
Integrated care boards and NHS trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management. The guideline aims to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and to improve the quality of care and support for people of all ages who are diagnosed with ADHD.