(5 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberWe are absolutely committed to making this the best country in the world in which to live with dementia by 2020. Already, more than two thirds of people with dementia receive a diagnosis; there are 2.85 million dementia friends and 346 areas in England are dementia friendly; and the £250 million dementia discovery fund is the largest venture fund in the world aimed at discovering and developing therapies for dementia.
I thank the Minister for her reply. I recently met representatives of the Alzheimer’s Society, which is, as the Minister will know, pushing forward with a campaign for more support for those suffering from dementia. Can she assure me that, despite what she has just said, this will be one of the main focuses of her Department during the comprehensive spending review?
We are absolutely committed to ensuring that everybody, including those who live with dementia, has access to the care and support that they need. We have noted the very important contributions of the Alzheimer’s Society and of a number of other reports. We are considering a number of different funding options and are keen to draw on the best practice of what works so that no one ends up spending their life savings on their care.
Yes. By 2020, we expect all relevant staff to have received appropriate dementia training.
(5 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberIn December, NHS England announced plans to increase funding for children’s palliative care services to as much as £25 million a year over the next five years through match funding investment from clinical commissioning groups.
St Andrew’s children’s hospice, based in Grimsby, which serves my constituency and the wider Lincolnshire area, is greatly valued and much treasured by the local community. Will the Minister clarify exactly how the funding will be delivered and how St Andrew’s can benefit?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning his local hospice. We all have wonderful stories about the fantastic care delivered by hospices, particularly children’s hospices, in our local area. NHS England will match fund clinical commissioning groups that commit to increase their investment in all children’s palliative and end-of-life care services by up to £7 million a year by 2023-24. This, added to the children’s hospice grant, which is currently £11 million a year, could therefore more than double NHS support to a combined total of £25 million.
(7 years ago)
Commons Chamber“Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families” aims to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children and is making good progress. For example, from next Spring, Public Health England will run a trial of individual placement and support, and our vital work on reducing parental conflict was boosted by the Chancellor’s announcement of £39 million in the recent Budget.
I thank the Minister for her reply. As she will know, working households in coastal communities such as Cleethorpes face particular difficulties. There is much low-paid work, but not much to encourage young people to stay there. What additional support can she offer to those sorts of communities?
The Government are committed to supporting coastal communities, such as those in his constituency of Cleethorpes and my constituency of Gosport. That is why I am pleased that the claimant count in his area is already down by 49%. Last March, we saw 248 families in north-east Lincolnshire achieve significant progress through our troubled families programme, and I know that the Secretary of State was impressed when he visited my hon. Friend and saw a programme that is helping troubled youngsters. More widely, the council was awarded a Coastal Communities Fund grant in April worth £3.8 million towards a scheme to enhance Cleethorpes’ role as a high-quality place to work, live and visit.
I, too, rise to present a petition in the same terms as that laid out by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart). I present it on behalf of my constituents in Gosport, who are so frustrated by the injustice of this situation and request English votes for English laws.
The Petition of the residents of Gosport.
[P001478]
I rise to present a petition on behalf of the constituents of Cleethorpes in the same terms as those of my hon. Friends. My constituents feel strongly that this constitutional anomaly wants correcting. They believe in English votes for English laws.
The Petition of the residents of Cleethorpes.
[P001479]
I, too, rise to present a petition in the same terms as that laid out by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart). I present it on behalf of my constituents in Gosport, who are so frustrated by the injustice of this situation and request English votes for English laws.
The Petition of the residents of Gosport.
[P001478]
I rise to present a petition on behalf of the constituents of Cleethorpes in the same terms as those of my hon. Friends. My constituents feel strongly that this constitutional anomaly wants correcting. They believe in English votes for English laws.
The Petition of the residents of Cleethorpes.
[P001479]