Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of new build-to-rent housing developments on social cohesion in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 14203 on 21 February 2024.
Build to Rent can play a vital role in helping to meet demand in the Private Rented Sector, and the Greater Manchester area is now the second largest market for Build to Rent investment after London.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2024 to Question 13613 on Local Government: Corruption, for what reason this information is not held centrally.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government does not hold investigation data on local authorities.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department plans to classify police officer suicide as a work-related accident.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government takes the mental health of the police workforce very seriously and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support for officers and staff.
Through the Police Covenant, we continue to work with policing partners to ensure those who work in policing and their families get the support and protection they need. We have already delivered pre-deployment mental health support for all new starters and established a Chief Medical Officer for policing.
Suicide is a particularly sensitive and difficult issue and usually involves a combination of many factors, which means that it is not straightforward to classify by default as a work-related incident. There is an existing system in which deaths are examined by a Coroner and a Coroner can already refer cases to the Health and Safety Executive, or other public body, if they consider there is an ongoing risk to others.
Any suicide is devastating and that is why, through the Police Covenant, we have developed a priority work stream on suicide prevention. The Home Office is also providing funding to establish and run the first year of a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support line for current and former members of the police workforce.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of Avanti West Coast’s decision to end cash payments for onboard catering on (a) people without payment cards, (b) employment levels of train catering staff, (c) elderly people and (d) people from lower income groups.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
It would be for Avanti West Coast, prior to introducing such a change, to adequately assess the impact on its passengers and staff.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an estimate of the potential impact of Build to Rent housing developments on the level of average rental costs in (a) Stockport and (b) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Build to Rent sector has delivered thousands of new, high-quality rental homes in recent years helping to boost housing supply, drive up standards and increase choice for tenants.
The Government does not disaggregate the build to rent sector in the data sets on local rental markets which are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support is provided to serving police officers with mental health problems.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government takes the mental health of the police workforce very seriously and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support for officers and staff.
Through the Police Covenant, we continue to work with policing partners to ensure those who work in policing and their families get the support and protection they need. We have already delivered pre-deployment mental health support for all new starters and established a Chief Medical Officer for policing.
Suicide is a particularly sensitive and difficult issue and usually involves a combination of many factors, which means that it is not straightforward to classify by default as a work-related incident. There is an existing system in which deaths are examined by a Coroner and a Coroner can already refer cases to the Health and Safety Executive, or other public body, if they consider there is an ongoing risk to others.
Any suicide is devastating and that is why, through the Police Covenant, we have developed a priority work stream on suicide prevention. The Home Office is also providing funding to establish and run the first year of a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support line for current and former members of the police workforce.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the letter of 16 January 2024 from the hon. Member for Stockport on behalf of a constituent, reference NM21899.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has received the correspondence of 16 January 2024 from the hon. Member and we will reply as soon as possible.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure adequate supply of ADHD medications.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites.
The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, and work continues to resolve the remaining supply issues by April or May this year.
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be and we want to assure you that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues with ADHD medicine supply in the United Kingdom as soon as possible, and to help ensure patients are able to access these medicines in the short and long term.
While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department already has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise, and to help mitigate risks to patients. There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems, and it works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the devolved administrations, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages do arise.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of appointments for education, health and care plan assessments.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have Special Educational Needs which require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. EHC plans must be issued within twenty weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need. In 2022, there were 114,482 requests for an EHC needs assessment and 72,695 assessments took place. The number of assessments has been increasing year on year since EHC plans were introduced. As of January 2023, 517,049 children and young people have EHC plans.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Need and Disabilities (SEND), the department works with them using a range of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses. Stockport is one of a number of local areas where the department is monitoring their EHC plan performance. The department is working with Stockport to improve their EHC plan quality as one of the key actions in the Local Area Partnerships ‘Accelerated Progress Plan’ following their most recent Ofsted Care Quality Commission inspection.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of special educational needs training given to teachers and staff at comprehensive schools in Greater Manchester.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not perform teacher performance evaluation at the local level. The Teachers’ Standards sets out the minimum level of practice expected of teachers who are awarded qualified teacher status (QTS). To be awarded QTS at the end of Initial Teacher Training (ITT), trainees must demonstrate that they have met all the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. The standards are also used to assess the performance of all teachers with QTS under the School Teachers’ Appraisal Regulations (2012). Therefore, most teachers need to adhere to the standards throughout their careers.
All teachers are teachers of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and the department is committed to ensuring that all pupils can reach their potential and receive excellent support from their teachers. The Teachers’ Standards set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. Consideration of SEND underpins both the ITT Core Content Framework and Early Career Framework (ECF), which were both produced with the support of sector experts. ITT courses and ECF-based programmes are designed so that new teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils.
To pass statutory teacher induction, early career teachers must demonstrate that they meet the Teachers' Standards through a formal assessment, signed off by their headteacher and independently checked by their appropriate body. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting ITT partnerships and ECF lead providers in line with published inspection frameworks.
Headteachers use their professional judgement to identify any further training, including specific specialisms, for individual staff that is relevant to them, the school, and its pupils. To further support the needs of pupils with SEND, particularly in mainstream settings where most of these learners are educated, the department has funded the Universal Services programme. The Universal Services programme, backed by almost £12 million in funding, will help the school and further education (FE) workforce to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND earlier and more effectively.
National Standards will improve mainstream education through setting standards for early and accurate identification of needs, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will include clarifying the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support. This will help families, practitioners and providers understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to FE, no matter where they live or what their needs are.