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Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

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 increase access to children’s mental health services in Warwick and Leamington constituency.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

We are expanding and transforming mental health services, including in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, through the NHS Long Term Plan. The plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24, so that an additional two million people, including 345,000 children and young people, are able to access National Health Service funded mental health support.

We also provided an additional £79 million for 2021/22 to allow around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services.

This includes rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges across England. There are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issue. Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils, by April 2023, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.

Eight teams are in place or planned in the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System area.


Written Question
Menopause: Health Services
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to help support women experiencing peri-menopausal and menopausal symptoms.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The menopause is a priority area within the Women’s Health Strategy, and the Government and National Health Service are implementing an ambitious programme of work to improve menopause care so all women can access the support they need.

The NHS Menopause Pathway Improvement Programme is working to improve clinical menopause care in England and reduce disparities in access to treatment. The NHS is also developing an education and training package on menopause for healthcare professionals.

The Government is implementing a bespoke hormone replacement therapy (HRT) pre-payment certificate to reduce the cost of HRT prescriptions for menopausal women from April 2023, subject to the necessary consultation with professional bodies which is ongoing.


Written Question
Continuing Care: Appeals
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the average length of time taken to process Continuing Healthcare appeals in England for every year for which data is available since 2017.

Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

We do not collect data on the length of time taken to process NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) appeals, nor on the expenditure related to CHC appeals. Appeals for CHC follow a three-stage process which ensures that the correct eligibility decision on CHC has been reached. The first stage is for an individual to ask for a local review at integrated care board (ICB) level, followed by a second stage review by an NHS England Independent Review Panel if requested. The final stage is a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. We have interpreted 'continuing healthcare appeals' as a request for a local review, or an Independent Review of a CHC eligibility decision. NHS England only collect and publish data on the annual number of ICB Local Resolution requests, and their outcomes, but not the length of time taken to process the appeals. NHS England collect Independent Review data for internal reporting and management purposes only. CHC spend data is also collected by NHS England, but not at the granular level requested.


Written Question
Continuing Care: Appeals
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was dispensed as part of Continuing Healthcare appeals in England for every year for which data is available since 2017.

Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

We do not collect data on the length of time taken to process NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) appeals, nor on the expenditure related to CHC appeals. Appeals for CHC follow a three-stage process which ensures that the correct eligibility decision on CHC has been reached. The first stage is for an individual to ask for a local review at integrated care board (ICB) level, followed by a second stage review by an NHS England Independent Review Panel if requested. The final stage is a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. We have interpreted 'continuing healthcare appeals' as a request for a local review, or an Independent Review of a CHC eligibility decision. NHS England only collect and publish data on the annual number of ICB Local Resolution requests, and their outcomes, but not the length of time taken to process the appeals. NHS England collect Independent Review data for internal reporting and management purposes only. CHC spend data is also collected by NHS England, but not at the granular level requested.


Written Question
NHS: Agency Workers
Tuesday 14th February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS spent on agencies in each year since 2012; and what proportion that spend is of the NHS budget in each of those years.

Answered by Will Quince

The table below sets out the agency spend for the years 2011/12 to 2020/21 and its proportion against the National Health Service budget for those years. 2021/22 data for agency is yet to be validated and published.

Year

Total agency spend £ billions

Proportion of NHS budget

2011/12

1.69

1.78%

2012/13

2.09

2.13%

2013/14

2.55

2.72%

2014/15

3.33

3.43%

2015/16

3.70

3.67%

2016/17

2.93

2.77%

2017/18

2.40

2.19%

2018/19

2.39

2.09%

2019/20

2.38

1.92%

2020/21

2.44

1.7%

NHS budget data source: HM Treasury’s Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses and the data is NHS RDEL, available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-pesa


Written Question
Nurses: Pay
Friday 3rd February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of changes to the median nurse’s salary in real terms since 2010.

Answered by Will Quince

The table shows the median basic pay per full time equivalent (FTE) for nurses and health visitors and the level of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the 12-months to September 2010 and the 12-months to September 2022.

Nurse & Health Visitor Median Basic Pay per FTE

Average CPI Index (2015 = 100)

12-months to September 2010

£27,186

88.7

12-months to September 2022

£34,095

118.6

Source: NHS Digital Earnings Statistics, Office for National Statistics.

Note: Basic pay figures do not include any additional earnings that staff may earn if they work unsocial hours or are in receipt of geographical allowances.

Over the period median basic pay per FTE increased by 25.4% while CPI increased by 33.7%


Written Question
Automated External Defibrillators Fund
Thursday 2nd February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the process to appoint a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillators Fund.

Answered by Will Quince

The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. The criteria for assessing whether proposed recipients are eligible to access the Automated External Defibrillators Fund will be part of the procurement process.

The Department will publish in due course a notice informing interested organisations of the upcoming opportunity and invite them to bid for the grant through GOV.UK.


Written Question
Automated External Defibrillators Fund
Thursday 2nd February 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria his Department will use to assess whether proposed recipients are eligible to access the Automated External Defibrillators Fund.

Answered by Will Quince

The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. The criteria for assessing whether proposed recipients are eligible to access the Automated External Defibrillators Fund will be part of the procurement process.

The Department will publish in due course a notice informing interested organisations of the upcoming opportunity and invite them to bid for the grant through GOV.UK.


Written Question
NHS: Sick Leave
Thursday 26th January 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS staff were off sick with stress-related illnesses in (a) 2012 and (b) 2022.

Answered by Will Quince

Data on sickness absence is collected in the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system for the National Health Service. Within this data it is not possible to specifically identify those recorded as absent due to ‘stress’. This sits within wider categories of absence collected, therefore for 2012, ‘stress-related’ reasons include 'Other Mental Disorders', 'Psychological', 'Stress' and 'S10 Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses'. For 2021 and 2022, stress reasons include 'S10 Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses'. The following table below shows the full time equivalent (FTE) days lost for ‘stress-related’ illnesses in 2012,2021 and 2022:

Type

2012

2021

2022 (January to August)

FTE days available

384,901,520

467,978,005

319,962,005

FTE days lost due to all reasons

16,271,654

23,531,596

18,050,326

FTE days lost due to stress related reasons

2,846,280

6,214,112

3,992,109

Stress related sickness absence rate as a percentage of FTE days available

0.7%

1.3%

1.2%

Stress related sickness absence rate as a percentage of FTE days lost due to all reasons

17.5%

26.4%

22.1%

FTE days lost due to Unknown reasons

2,490,021

697,063

485,420

Source: NHS Digital Sickness Absence Data

Notes:

  1. For 2012, stress reasons include 'Other Mental Disorders', 'Psychological', 'Stress' and 'S10 Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses'. For 2021 and 2022, stress reasons include 'S10 Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses'.
  2. 2022 only covers months of January to August 2022 as this is the latest data available at this time.
  3. Part of the increase in FTE days lost by sickness absence reason may be attributable to the improvement in completion of sickness absence reason information by staff.

Written Question
NHS: Agency Workers
Tuesday 24th January 2023

Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS spent on agency staff in (a) 2012 and (B) 2022.

Answered by Will Quince

Agency spend in 2011/12 was £1.69 billion and in 2012/13 was £2.09 billion. The information requested on expenditure on agency for the period 2021/2022 has not yet been validated.