Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nic Dakin and Caroline Dinenage

Tuesday 18th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

I am really pleased that my hon. Friend has mentioned that it is Children’s Hospice Week. It is a great opportunity to pay tribute to the incredible work that children’s hospices do up and down the country, supporting some of our most poorly children and their families. I thank my hon. Friend for the work that she does on the all-party parliamentary group for children who need palliative care. The short answer to her question is yes; the NHS will match fund CCGs that increase their investment in children’s palliative care, including hospices, by up to £7 million. That is increasing support to a total of £25 million a year by 2023-24.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

There are only about 40 Changing Places facilities in the NHS at the moment. I congratulate the Minister on the work she is doing on this, but will she continue to work with campaigners like Lorna Fillingham in my constituency to make sure that it not only happens quickly and on a timely basis but that we build on it in the future?

[Caroline Dinenage]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman because it was he who introduced me to Lorna Fillingham and the amazing Changing Places campaigners in the first place. It is really down to their incredible work that we have seen the growth of this very important issue. There are about 38 Changing Places facilities on NHS England estates at the moment, but the £2 million pot will definitely help to improve that number significantly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nic Dakin and Caroline Dinenage

Tuesday 26th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this: we do need to do more in this space, and that is why we are investing over £1 billion a year in health research through the National Institute of Health Research.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

What evaluation is being put in place to see how effective the 2018 NICE guidelines for clinicians on managing Lyme disease are in improving the treatment of this dreadful disease?

[Caroline Dinenage]

All NICE guidelines are permanently kept under review. If the research we are investing in throws new light on any issues, that will always be taken into consideration.

Patient Transport Services: Northern Lincolnshire

Debate between Nic Dakin and Caroline Dinenage

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) on securing the debate. As he has so elegantly articulated, the provision of patient transport services is important to many people throughout the country.

Let me take this opportunity to give heartfelt thanks to all the staff in the health and care system. They work tirelessly in often difficult circumstances, routinely going above and beyond the call of duty to keep patients safe. Those dedicated people make our NHS truly great. No one knows that better than my hon. Friend, who spends weekends volunteering as a first responder with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. He deserves massive thanks for everything that he does in that role, as do all first responders up and down the country.

We recognise that effective patient transport services are vitally important, not only to ensure the provision of high-quality, safe services for patients, but to ensure that patient flow through hospitals is not slowed by missed medical appointments or delayed patient discharges. We are clear that local NHS CCGs must ensure that reliable, safe and comfortable patient transport services are delivered and maintained.

Patient transport services, like almost all other health services, are locally commissioned and provided to ensure that they are well adapted to local conditions. It is for local CCGs to set appropriate expectations of service with their providers and to take swift action where they fall short. However, that is not to say that the Government have no expectations of how these services should be delivered and should function. There is well-established national guidance on who is eligible to use patient transport services which makes it very clear that patients should reach appointments in reasonable time and comfort without detriment to their medical condition. NHS England has also communicated with the CCGs about their responsibilities when commissioning patient transport services via its CCG bulletin.

[Nic Dakin]

I congratulate the Minister on taking up her new post, which I am sure she will do very well. She said that CCGs should take swift action when things are not working. What does swift action look like? This has been going on for some time now; how quickly should the people of northern Lincolnshire expect to have the patient transport service they deserve?

[Caroline Dinenage]

Of course, we have devolved this matter locally and it is up to the local CCG to take action. I know that a recovery plan is in place and the delivery of the plan is now being monitored weekly, but the hon. Gentleman is right, and, like my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole, he has kept on articulating this issue and asking these questions on behalf of his constituents, to try to find out when they will see a visible difference to the service, because it is currently not good enough.

Patient transport providers are also required to be registered and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health services. This Government have given the CQC more powers, and it is now able to rate independent healthcare transport providers in the same way as NHS ambulance services. We fully support the CQC in its work to ensure that users of patient transport services are protected, and where services are not good enough and the necessary improvements have not been made, it can take further action, including issuing fines, service restrictions, and ultimately the cancellation of a provider’s registration.

Additionally, we are very supportive of the Department for Transport-led total transport initiative, which I think was what my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole was referring to, and which is currently piloting the joint commissioning of public sector-funded transport in order to reduce the risk of services overlapping, improve efficiency, and provide a better overall service to passengers.

From the local work carried out so far, it has become clear there are a range of potential benefits for the NHS, including helping to avoid bed blocking—where patients sometimes cannot go home because non-emergency patient transport is not available—and improving access to NHS services by reducing missed appointments due to late or unavailable transport. We have asked NHS England to ensure that CCGs are all engaging in this important work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nic Dakin and Caroline Dinenage

Monday 13th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

When a non-resident parent fails to pay on time or in full, we endeavour to immediately establish compliance before enforcement action is needed. There is a range of strong powers that we can take, including the forced sale of property, disqualification from driving or, indeed, commitment to prison, but we are exploring options to expand those, and they will form part of our new compliance and arrears strategy, which will be published shortly.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

Members of the British Steel pension scheme need to decide whether to go into British Steel pension scheme 2 or the Pension Protection Fund by 11 December, but there is still a lack of clarity around the position of high/low pensioners in the PPF and whether that might change after the point of decision making. Will the Secretary of State look at this so that the information is available to people before they make that decision?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nic Dakin and Caroline Dinenage

Monday 14th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

T8. Nursery providers have been contacting me because they are very anxious about the changes that are likely to result in reduced funding per child. The Minister has been very clear today that that will not happen. Will she meet my local providers so that we can have an exchange of information?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Caroline Dinenage)]

I will be more than happy to.