Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 adequacy of medical school places.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need, including doctors, to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.
We have launched the 10-Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the National Health Service. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to build the transformed health service we will deliver over the next decade.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 recently graduated medical students to find employment in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following completion of a medical degree, United Kingdom medical graduates must complete the Foundation Programme, a two-year work-based programme, to practise as a doctor in the National Health Service. We are committed to ensuring that the number of Foundation Programme places meets the demands of the NHS in the future.
The Government is committed to growing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join the NHS. However, internationally educated staff remain an important part of the workforce.
In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 doctors trained in the UK in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to ensuring that doctors trained in the United Kingdom remain within the National Health Service through a structured, data-driven approach to workforce retention, and to improving the working conditions of all resident doctors, including trainee surgeons.
NHS England’s Enhancing Resident Doctors Working Lives programme continues to implement several measures aimed at supporting resident doctors, encouraging them to stay in training and the NHS, and reducing overall attrition. In addition, the NHS National Retention Programme is actively improving working conditions for trainee surgeons by enhancing workplace culture, promoting flexible training, and reducing burnout and attrition.
On 18 February 2025, the Chief Medical Officer and the National Medical Director of NHS England jointly launched a review of postgraduate medical training. The review will cover placement options, the flexibility of training, difficulties with rotas, control and autonomy in training, and the balance between developing specialist knowledge and gaining a broad range of skills.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of community interest companies that are no longer able to offer free mental health support due to financial constraints on the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is for individual local commissioners to allocate funding to children and young people’s mental health services to meet the needs of their local populations and this information is not collected centrally. Integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2025/26 by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 support community interest companies that are mental health providers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is for individual local commissioners to allocate funding to children and young people’s mental health services to meet the needs of their local populations and this information is not collected centrally. Integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2025/26 by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on improving dementia care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve care for patients with dementia, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, NHS England's RightCare team has refreshed the RightCare Dementia Scenario. The scenario works through the Dementia Well Pathway journey, from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and sub optimal approaches, with associated costings for each. The RightCare team has also developed a dementia model pathway, based on data for each component of the Dementia Well Pathway, to provide a high-level view of what dementia care activity looks like for local areas, and to aid targeted support where appropriate. We have a national career framework for adult social care, the Care Workforce Pathway, which is linked to a number of existing competency frameworks, including the dementia training standards framework. The Department has also launched a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification which links to the outcomes in the Care Workforce Pathway. This contains the baseline knowledge required to provide quality care, and will make sure that those who are starting out their careers have an informed awareness of dementia.
In addition, the Government is investing in dementia research across all areas, from causes, diagnosis, and prevention, to treatment, care, and support, including for carers. The Department delivers dementia care research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds a range of research into dementia care, including partnering with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Alzheimer’s Society to award £6 million to NetworkPlus grants, allowing the development of research and communities focused on the use and development of tools and technologies to enable people to live independently with dementia.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when it was decided that community interest companies should be ineligible for capital funding provided to NHS mental health trusts in the 2024-25 financial year; and whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of making community interest companies eligible.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government capital funding is provided for specific purposes, and for the National Health Service is for NHS organisations to manage their assets and provide NHS services. Community interest companies (CICs) are therefore outside the remit of most of this funding.
However, there may be some instances where integrated care systems (ICSs) can commission and fund other organisations including CICs to provide NHS services; for example, the Mental Health Urgent and Emergency Care programme funds, amongst other things, new and improved facilities and alternatives to accident and emergency, and hospital admission such as crisis houses and cafes, safe havens and step-down services.
Any changes to the current capital regime, including funding distribution will be considered during the development of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 November 2024 to Question 12940 on Non-surgical Cosmetic Procedures: Regulation, whether he has made an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of rectifying unregulated cosmetic procedures.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have made no estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of rectifying complications relating to cosmetic procedures.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason his Department withdrew the NHS contract from the Waltham Dentist Practice; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that withdrawal on the provision of NHS dental appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The decision to terminate the contract for the provision of National Health Service dental services with Waltham Dentist Practice was taken by NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) as a contractual matter. We cannot comment further due to commercial sensitivity.
The funding from this contract remains allocated to dental services in the region and the ICB is engaging with other dental practices in the area to find solutions for NHS patients to access treatment with alternative providers.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 made on tackling unregulated cosmetic procedures; and whether he plans to follow up on the previous Government's consultation on that matter.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is currently considering what steps may need to be taken in relation to the safety of the non-surgical cosmetics sector and will set out its position at the earliest opportunity.