Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2015 to Question 224944, if he will place in the Library NHS England's monthly data on individual funding requests relating to specialised services.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England has advised that, once its national database is completely up and running and all data from the NHS England regions have been migrated over to it, NHS England will consider the publication of information on individual funding requests relating to specialised services.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to reduce mental health stigma and discrimination as a result of signing up to the Time to Change Pledge.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The MoJ was the second government department to sign the Time to Change pledge in April 2013 and since then has been working to take steps to eliminate discrimination and stigma surrounding mental health through a variety of measures including:
· Training with Mind for senior managers in 2013 and more recently encouraging all staff to access Mental Health Awareness online learning on the Civil Service Learning portal;
· Provision of extensive information and guidance to staff and managers of all grades, including introducing Mental Wellbeing intranet pages, guides on mental health in the workplace, links to external support (such as Mind, Rethink, Business Disability Forum and Time to Change) and internal information and support such as the MoJ Employee Assistance Programme and the Reasonable Adjustment Support Service;
· Awareness raising activity and staff events to increase understanding of mental health issues and challenge stereotypes, including events for the International Day of Disabled People and 'Time to Talk' days, as well as including staff with mental ill-health in an internal 'Positive Images of Disability' communications campaign.
Time to Change and issues surrounding mental health in the workplace remain high on MoJ's employee wellbeing and diversity and inclusion agendas.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to reduce mental health stigma and discrimination as a result of signing up to the Time to Change Pledge.
Answered by Claire Perry
Since signing the Time to Change pledge on 26 February 2014, the Department has made significant steps to help reduce the stigma around mental health issues. These include:
· Establishing a staff-led Time to Change Working Group;
· Staff blogs describing their own personal experiences dealing with mental health issues, which have had a big impact in encouraging others to join the conversation;
· Regular blog and updates of progress from Director General (and DfT’s Disability Champion);
· Events on mental health included as part of the Department’s health and wellbeing week and its diversity and inclusion week;
· Promoting Time to Talk Day through, for example, senior-leadership team cascades and the distribution of materials to help start more conversations about mental health;
· A pilot of mental health first-aid training courses;
· Promoting guidance and information on the Department’s Intranet, including the support available through our Employee Assistance Provider (EAP).
· Employing a health and wellbeing coordinator tasked with removing barriers faced by people with mental health issues.
The Department is also part of the Time to Change Whitehall Learning Peer Network where colleagues across Whitehall share learning and resources.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2015 to Question 225560, when his Department plans to conclude its reviews of all claimant communications and sanctions processes; and if he will publish the results of that review.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We have accepted all the recommendations made by the Oakley Report and have already implemented a number of improvements. The Government has published our response which sets out a number of target completion dates and a copy can be found here:
In the Government Response to the Oakley Review we committed to report on the progress of the Communications Review by the end of 2014. The Department published an update on improvements to communications following the review, on 18 December 2014. This can be found here:
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2015 to Question 218249, if he will provide a breakdown of the figures in the Answer by (a) employment sector and (b) gender; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government takes the enforcement of National Minimum Wage very seriously. Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should make a complaint to the Pay & Work Rights Helpline on 0800 917 2368. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) review every complaint that is referred to them by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline. In addition, HMRC conducts risk-based enforcement activities in sectors or areas where there is a higher risk of workers not getting paid the legal minimum wage.
HMRC has identified arrears of National Minimum Wage for the following numbers of workers by gender in each of the past four years as detailed in the table below. Due to changes in the way HMRC record management information on trade sectors during the period requested it is not possible to provide a per worker breakdown by sector.
Year | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
Male | 11,757 | 9,811 | 10,908 | 8,892 | 11,185 | 10,461 |
Female | 11,490 | 9,434 | 12,011 | 8,479 | 15,334 | 12,149 |
Total | 23,247 | 19,245 | 22,919 | 17,371 | 26,519 | 22,610 |
A number of cases arising from HMRC’s concerted work in the social care sector over recent years has helped to contribute towards an increase in arrears payments to female workers, due to the composition of the workforce in that sector
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress Health Education England has made in developing training programmes for health and care employers to ensure that all staff have an awareness of mental health problems and how they may affect their patients by January 2015; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Health Education England (HEE) has been mandated to develop mental health awareness training for all health care staff. This will be launched on 9 March. This is an introductory module with the aim of raising the awareness of mental health issues within healthcare staff. It is designed to give a broad overview of what encompasses mental illness, the link between mental and physical health diagnoses and outline possible treatment options.
The package ensures free access to all healthcare staff and is available as part of HEE E-Learning for Health.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress Health Education England has made in ensuring that training is available so that there can be a specialist GP in every clinical commissioning group trained in the physical and mental health needs of armed forces veterans by summer 2015.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Health Education England (HEE) is working with partners to develop an updated e-Learning programme comprising of a pre-assessment; three e-learning sessions on ‘Caring for Veterans and their Families’, ‘Mental Health problems in Veterans’, and ‘Veterans with Severe or Long-term Injuries’; and a post-course assessment.
The e-Learning package is expected to be available in summer 2015, following which HEE will work with partners to promote the package across the National Health Service.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress Health Education England has made in developing a mutual health e-learning package to support continuing professional development for GPs by January 2015; and how many GPs have used that package.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Health Education England (HEE) is not currently developing a mutual health e-learning package to support continuing professional development for general practitioners (GPs).
However, HEE has been mandated by the Department to develop a mental health e-learning package which will be available to the public from 9 March. The package has been designed for all primary and secondary healthcare staff, including GPs.
No uptake figures are currently available.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress Health Education England has made in ensuring that a module on perinatal mental health is included in core training for midwives.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Health Education England (HEE) has been working with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Royal College of Midwives, to ensure midwives in training have a core training module focussing on perinatal mental health, with the intention that this will be in place for those entering training in 2015.
HEE has developed three perinatal mental health e-learning modules, in partnership with the Institute of Health Visiting, focusing on both the recognition and interventions needed around perinatal depression and other mental health disorders.
Asked by: Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will commission research into the reasons why the largest category of people transferred from incapacity benefit to the fit-to-work group have been people with mental health issues.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
We have no plans to commission such research.