Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide details of (a) each mental health support team, (b) the area that each of those teams serves and (c) the number of schools and colleges that each of those teams serves.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information is not collected in the format requested. However, details of mental health support teams (MHST) are collected by integrated care system which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/
On average, each MHST covers 8,000 children in approximately 10 to 20 schools and colleges, providing group and one-to-one interventions. Provision is agreed locally, with consideration given to health inequalities and disparities in the area.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many training placements for junior doctors were funded in London in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020, (d) 2021 and (e) 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the number of training places for junior doctors in London which were funded by Health Education England in each year from 2018 to 2022.
Year | Number of training places |
2018/19 | 8,381 |
2019/20 | 8,386 |
2020/21 | 8,460 |
2021/22 | 8,582 |
2022/23 | 8,710 |
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of speech and language therapists in England; and what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of schools’ budgets for speech and language therapy which goes unspent as a result of a lack of available therapists.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
NHS England is currently working with Health Education England (HEE) to review the total speech and language therapy workforce. The Department of Health and Social Care will work with HEE, NHS England and the Department for Education to collate evidence of the demand for support for children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND) requirements from the therapy and diagnostic workforce.
While schools are not allocated specific funding for speech and language therapy, overall funding can be used for this purpose as necessary. The Department for Education does not collect information on schools’ budgets available for expenditure on speech and language therapy in the format requested.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 (a) children and (b) adults with cystic fibrosis in England saw either a clinical psychologist or social worker at their latest annual review for each year since 2015.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information requested for social workers is not held. Data for clinical psychologists is not currently held in the format requested. However, the following table shows centrally validated quarterly data on the proportion of children with cystic fibrosis in England who saw a clinical psychologist within the 12 months prior to their latest annual review in each year from 2019/20 to Quarter 3 in 2021/22. Data for Quarter 4 is not yet held centrally and information is not held prior to 2019.
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Quarter 1 | 78.6% | 48.7% | 63.8% |
Quarter 2 | 57.3% | 37.3% | 44.2% |
Quarter 3 | 66.1% | 50.0% | 58.2% |
Quarter 4 | 58.6% | 55.8% | N/A |
The following table shows centrally validated quarterly data on the proportion of adults with cystic fibrosis in England who saw a clinical psychologist within the 12 months prior to their latest annual review in each year from 2019/20 to Quarter 3 in 2021/22. Data for Quarter 4 is not yet held centrally and information is not held prior to 2019.
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Quarter 1 | 82.2% | 20.4% | 33.3% |
Quarter 2 | 72.6% | 66.8% | 25.4% |
Quarter 3 | 80.2% | 59.6% | 38.5% |
Quarter 4 | 65.3% | 54.6% | N/A |
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings of the survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care, published on 13 January 2022, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing targeted long-term funding to enable local authorities to improve working conditions in adult social care services.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We are providing approximately £1.6 billion in additional grant funding in each of the next three years to allow councils to increase spending on services such as adult social care. The Local Government Finance settlement also made an additional £3.7 billion available to councils in 2022/23. Of this, local authorities will have access to more than £1 billion specifically for social care. We are also providing of least £500 million to develop and support the adult social care workforce and fund initiatives on wellbeing and additional training.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of providing funding to regional air ambulance services in England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No recent assessment has been made. In 2019, the Department launched a three-year capital grant programme which allocated £10 million to nine air ambulance charities in England. A further £6 million was provided in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was allocated to Air Ambulances UK to distribute to the 21 air ambulance charities in the United Kingdom. We continue to support a charitable model for the funding of air ambulance services. Decisions on the provision of services are made locally and maintaining a charitable model allows charities the independence to deliver specialised services tailored to the needs of patients.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 potential merits of increasing research funding to improve (a) the diagnosis and (b) the treatment of childhood cancers as part of the Government’s 10-Year Cancer Plan for England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). In 2020/21, the NIHR’s total expenditure on cancer research was £73.5 million.
Officials are currently analysing the responses to the call for evidence to develop the 10 Year Cancer Plan. The Plan will set out ambitions for cancer care, including diagnosis and treatments provided to patients, including children.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that the forthcoming reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 will include school and community-based early-intervention provision for children and young people to include play and creative arts therapy and counselling in addition to the autism, closed ward and clinical measures listed in the white paper on Reforming the Mental Health Act, published on 13 January 2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The reforms to the Mental Health Act 1983 follow the recommendations made by the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act chaired by Sir Simon Wessely. However, school and community-based early intervention provision for children and young people fall outside the scope of these reforms. The provision of these services is a matter for local commissioners.
We are improving early intervention provision for children and young people through the introduction of mental health support teams in schools and colleges. By 2022/23, we are on schedule for mental health support teams to support 25% of the country, increasing to 399 teams covering an estimated three million children and young people or approximately 35% of pupils by 2023/24.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has (a) commissioned research on and (b) allocated funding to research on Triple Negative Breast Cancer.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The following table shows the research projects on triple negative breast cancer funded by the NIHR since 2019/20.
Award title | Award budget |
Atezolizumab with nab-paclitaxel for untreated PD L1-positive, locally advanced or metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer [ID1522] | £65,625 |
Pembrolizumab in combination for untreated, locally recurrent inoperable or metastatic, triple negative breast cancer [ID1546] | £65,625 |
Atezolizumab (neoadjuvant, with nab-paclitaxel) for early, triple negative breast cancer (ID1574) | £65,625 |
Sacituzumab govitecan for treating unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer after two or more therapies ID3942 | £65,625 |
The NIHR is also supporting the delivery of triple negative breast cancer research funded by research partners in the charity and public sectors. In 2020/21, the NIHR Clinical Research Network has supported approximately 25 related studies into triple negative breast cancer. With Cancer Research UK, the NIHR is jointly funding a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres for the discovery and early-phase clinical testing of new anti-cancer treatments, including immunotherapy. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area is determined by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what basis the Government had made the decision of requiring a PCR test for those who have had covid-19 in the last 90 days, upon arriving in the UK, while the advice pre-departure had been to do an LFT as a PCR could show positive.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were required for those with COVID-19 infection in the last 90 days to identify not only those with the virus but also new variants which may have been acquired overseas. Positive PCR tests for arrivals were sequenced to understand potential emerging variants. Recent infection and associated immunity is not associated with a residual positive PCR.