Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 2.4 of the NHS Long Term Plan, what public consultation his Department undertook with the sexual and reproductive health sector on the review of the commissioning arrangements for sexual and reproductive health.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced the outcome of the review, confirming that local authorities will continue to take the lead in commissioning sexual and reproductive health, school nursing and health visiting services, at his Royal Society of Medicine lecture on 6 June.
The review consulted a range of stake-holders. Stakeholder forums were organised by the National Aids Trust and the Public Health Systems Group, to which many organisations were invited to express their views. Officials from the Department also met with a number of organisations, and the review received a number of written submissions.
The forthcoming Prevention Green Paper will provide an opportunity for people to give us their views on more we can do to encourage local authorities and National Health Service bodies to work well together in commissioning health services.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
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 trends in the level of the Public Health Grant in (a) the current Spending Review Period and (b) the next Spending Review on the (i) level of quality of drug treatment services and (ii) number of drug-related deaths.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Government is concerned by the number of drug-related deaths, which is largely caused by an ageing cohort of heroin users. We are supporting local areas to develop a more joined up approach to commissioning and delivering the range of services that are essential to supporting recovery and preventing drug-related deaths. In October, the Home Office announced that there would be a major independent review of drug misuse. This will look at a wide range of issues, including the system of support and enforcement around drug abuse, to better inform our thinking about what more can be done to tackle drug harms including deaths. The review will inform our thinking about what more can be done to mitigate the harm caused through drug use.
Local authorities will receive £3.1 billion in 2019/20, ring-fenced exclusively for use on public health, including drug addiction. We are investing over £16 billion in local authority public health services over the five years of the 2015 Spending Review until 2020/21. Public health funding for 2020 onwards, including for addiction services, will be considered carefully in the next Spending Review, in the light of the available evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of care homes are rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission in (a) Liverpool, (b) the North West and (c) England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has provided the following data:
- | Number of active care homes with latest overall rating as ‘Inadequate’ | Total active care homes | Percentage1 of active care homes by latest overall rating |
Liverpool Local Authority | 1 | 89 | 1.1% |
North West Region | 20 | 1,915 | 1.0% |
England | 230 | 15,668 | 1.5% |
Notes: 1Percentages for each latest overall rating are as a proportion of total active care homes, including homes with no published rating to date.
The data provided can be used in accordance with the Open Government Licence for Public Sector Information by acknowledging the CQC as the data source.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral statement of 5 November 2018, Official Report, column 1269, what progress he has made on the structure of a health in all policies approach to policy-making.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
In the Prevention Vision document, ‘Prevention is Better Than Cure’, we committed to publishing a Prevention Green Paper setting out Government plans on prevention in more detail, including our approach to health in all policies. This Green Paper will be published in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
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 15 May 2019 to Question 254804, when the National Suicide Prevention Strategy will be published.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy was first published in 2012 as the cross-Government outcomes strategy, ‘Preventing Suicide in England’.
We have published a number of progress reports since then with the third progress report, published in January 2017, updating the 2012 strategy in a number of areas. The latest progress report was published in January 2019 together with a cross-Government suicide prevention workplan which sets out an ambitious programme across central and local government and delivery agencies to reduce suicide. These documents are available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/suicide-prevention-resources-and-guidance
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the data published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council on 20 May 2019, what steps his Department is taking to retain nurses that are EU nationals in the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department is clear that all staff that are European Union nationals are valued and should be made to feel welcome in the United Kingdom and working in the National Health Service. To this end the Department has supported employers in promoting the EU Settlement Scheme and piloting the scheme from December 2018 to NHS and social care employees, before it was launched to the wider public in March 2019.
It should be noted that the rate of European Economic Area citizens leaving the Nursing and Midwifery Council register decreased by 18.1% between April 2018 and March 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
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 published by the Care Quality Commission, published on 20 May 2019, whether he will convene an expert group to consider the delivery of best care to people with learning disabilities and autism.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
On 21 May 2019, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its ‘Interim Report: Review of restraint, prolonged seclusion and segregation for people with a mental health problem, a learning disability and or autism.’ The Government has accepted all five of the recommendations in the CQC’s interim report including the recommendation that an expert group, that includes clinicians, people with lived experience and academics, should be convened to consider what would be the key features of a better system of care for this specific group of people (that is those with a learning disability and/or autism whose behaviour is so challenging that they are, or are at risk of, being cared for in segregation).
The target in the NHS Long Term Plan is to reduce the number of children with a learning disability, autism or both in a specialist inpatient unit to a level equivalent to no more than 12 to 15 children per one million children in England by 2023-24.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS target to reduce the number of children and young people being held in assessment and treatment units by 50 per cent, by what date he expects that target to be achieved.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
On 21 May 2019, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its ‘Interim Report: Review of restraint, prolonged seclusion and segregation for people with a mental health problem, a learning disability and or autism.’ The Government has accepted all five of the recommendations in the CQC’s interim report including the recommendation that an expert group, that includes clinicians, people with lived experience and academics, should be convened to consider what would be the key features of a better system of care for this specific group of people (that is those with a learning disability and/or autism whose behaviour is so challenging that they are, or are at risk of, being cared for in segregation).
The target in the NHS Long Term Plan is to reduce the number of children with a learning disability, autism or both in a specialist inpatient unit to a level equivalent to no more than 12 to 15 children per one million children in England by 2023-24.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS workforce strategy will priorities the specialist training required for people working with people with complex needs.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The interim People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, recognises the need to move to a multi-disciplinary model of care, particularly for people with more complex health and care needs, and places general practitioners at the heart of this model.
In advance of publishing the final People Plan, NHS England will work to implement the plan set out in Health Education England and NHS Improvement’s report, ‘Maximising the Potential: essential measures to support SAS doctors’, published in February 2019.
The aim is to provide further support and flexible training for specialty and associate specialist doctors, and establish a national programme board to address geographical and specialty shortages in medicine. The report can be accessed here:
https://www.hee.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/documents/SAS_Report_Web.pdf
Skills for Care and Health Education England are working to ensure that the health and social care workforce have the skills and training they need, including when working with people with complex needs.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
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 retain nursing staff.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
NHS Improvement is leading a national retention programme across the National Health Service with an initial focus on improving retention of the nursing workforce, as well as the mental health clinical workforce.
To date 110 trusts have completed the NHS Improvement Direct Support Programme. NHS Improvement is currently working with an additional 35 trusts and will be expanding the programme across the NHS and providing support to all remaining NHS trusts in England.
The latest data from the University and College Admissions Service (February 2019) shows that there has been a 4.5% increase in applicants to nursing or midwifery courses at English universities when compared to this time last year (2018).
The NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, sets out a vital strategic framework to ensure that over the next 10 years the NHS will have the staff it needs. This will ensure that nurses are able to offer the expert compassionate care that they are committed providing. To ensure a detailed plan that everyone in the NHS can get behind my Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has asked Baroness Harding to lead an inclusive programme of work to set out a detailed workforce implementation plan to be published in due course.