Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Sir Mike Richards’ review of cancer screening programmes, whether the findings from that review will be incorporated into proposals on tackling workforce shortages for breast imaging and diagnostic workforce and included in the final NHS People Plan.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The National Health Service currently has a record number of specialist cancer staff and has committed to recruit an additional 1,500 staff across seven priority cancer specialisms by 2021.
The NHS interim People Plan was published on 3 June 2019. It acknowledges that further action must be taken to grow and recruit a world class cancer workforce to the NHS, and sets out a shared vision and plan of action to put NHS people at the heart of NHS policy and delivery.
In advance of publishing the final People Plan, soon after the conclusion of the 2019 Spending Review, the NHS will establish a national programme board to address geographical and specialty shortages in medicine, which will include the cancer workforce.
An independent review of cancer services led by Sir Mike Richards will report in summer 2019, NHS England and NHS Improvement will carefully consider any recommendations from this Review in the context of the NHS People Plan.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that businesses offering tattooing or piercings possess the appropriate training and qualifications.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Local authorities are responsible for regulating and monitoring businesses offering cosmetic body piercing, including ear piercing, permanent tattooing, semi-permanent skin colouring (micropigmentation, semi-permanent make-up and temporary tattooing), electrolysis and acupuncture. Although there is no formal qualification needed for someone to practise in any of these vocations, all LAs require those providing tattooing or piercing to be licensed. Whilst the licensing process will not be dependent upon qualifications held by the operator, they would be required to be competent in methods of cleansing and sterilising of equipment.
We consider this is an area where progress can be most quickly and effectively made by practitioners, their organisations, industry bodies, training bodies and enforcement authorities working together to agree on suitable standards of good practice and competency.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, piercing and tattoo businesses have a legal duty to protect the health of employees and persons other than their employees, who may be affected by the practices. This information is available at the following link:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the NHS has access to faster digital technology systems to enable practices to be run more efficiently.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
We are committed to ensuring that all practices have access to faster digital technology systems to enable to high quality, effective healthcare services that are responsive to all patients’ needs.
We have rolled out National Health Service WiFi across 96.8% of general practitioner (GP) practices, benefiting the care of an estimated 57.8 million patients. The new Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) arrangements are enabling clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to obtain faster data network connections for GPs and all GP practices are expected to have migrated from their legacy connectivity to new HSCN services by the end of 2020.
The fourth edition of the GP IT Operating Model requires CCGs to adopt appropriately-sized HSCN connectivity capable of supporting their current and future GP business needs and states they should upgrade any existing copper-based asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) connections providing primary connectivity to practice premises to fibre-based connections such as Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) or Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) as a minimum.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the study entitled Recession, recovery and suicide in mental health patients in England: time trend analysis, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on 13 June 2019, what assessment he has made of the effect of economic pressures on male adults' mental health; and what steps he is taking to provide support and targeted interventions for patients experiencing financial difficulties.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government recognises the impact that debt and financial difficulty can have on men’s mental health and wellbeing and that men are at a higher risk of suicide.
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy highlights groups that need tailored approaches to address their mental health needs to reduce their suicide risk, including men. Every local authority has a suicide prevention plan in place and we are investing £25 million over the next three years to support these local plans. We have worked with NHS England and Public Health England to ensure that this funding is used to test different approaches to reaching men in local communities.
We are working with the local government sector to assess the effectiveness of those plans, and a report will be published shortly that will highlight areas of best practice and areas for improvement. This report will include an analysis of the extent to which local authority plans are addressing high risk groups.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Children's Commissioner published 11 June 2019 entitled We need to talk: Access to speech and language therapy, what steps he is taking to end the postcode lottery in funding for speech and language therapy for children.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The NHS Long Term Plan recognises the importance of speech and language therapists and proposes that local areas design and implement models of care that are age appropriate, closer to home and bring together physical and mental health services.
The Department for Education with Public Health England is investing £1.9 million in training for health visitors and early years practitioners to promote speech, language and communication.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 implications for his policies of the findings on children's mental and physical health in Poverty dynamics and health in late childhood in the UK: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study, published by the British Medical Journal on June 11th 2019; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
There has been no current assessment of this report. The evidence is clear that income and physical and mental health outcomes are closely associated. The NHS Long Term Plan for the National Health Service, backed by an extra £33.9 billion a year in cash terms by 2023/24, puts prevention at its heart and early intervention is key. The Government is supporting this with an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services and help ensure 345,000 more children and young people under 25 receive mental health support by 2023/24. Tackling the root cause of poverty remains a priority for this Government and some families need more support. The Government is continuing to spend £95 billion a year on working-age benefits and provide free school meals to more than one million of the country’s most disadvantaged children.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 tackle underage vaping.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The European Union’s Tobacco Product Directive (2014/40/EU) legislates for, amongst other matters, the regulation of electronic cigarettes. It has been transposed into United Kingdom law by the UK Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. The legislation introduced measures to regulate e-cigarettes to reduce the risk of harm to children through rules on product safety, labelling and restrictions on advertising for electronic cigarettes.
Furthermore, the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 makes it illegal to sell an electronic cigarette to any one aged under 18 years. Local trading standards have enforcement powers to take action on breaches of both sets of regulations.
We continue to monitor the evidence and data on youth vaping. Public Health England’s latest e-cigarette evidence review published in February 2019 indicates regular youth use of electronic cigarettes remains low. The Government has also made a commitment to review the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 by May 2021, and the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 by May 2020.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 30 May 2019 to Question 256964, what assessment he has made of the effect of NHS Employers’ decision to make a contractual offer to (a) consultants and (b) associate specialist (SAS) doctors on (i) enhanced occupational rates of pay for shared parental leave contingent on contractual terms and (ii) redundancy terms and conditions.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
NHS Employers have proposed to medical trades unions the adoption of a set of common provisions set out in the NHS Handbook. These terms and conditions include, but are not limited to, shared parental leave and redundancy. Medical trades unions have been invited to discuss the proposed changes in partnership through the established negotiation forums for the consultant and specialty and associate specialists (SAS) doctor contracts.
This is the same protocol as has previously been followed for proposing provisions agreed under the non-pay schedules in the NHS Handbook to consultants and SAS doctors.
In 2015, the NHS Staff Council agreed new redundancy provisions for the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service. The British Medical Association (BMA), who are part of the Staff Council, did not agree to amend the national terms and conditions which their members are employed upon. This resulted in redundancy terms being different for doctors compared with other National Health Service staff. In 2016 the new contract for doctors and dentists in training introduced schedules which brought them in line with the shared provisions for other NHS staff, including redundancy. However, as it stands, other grades of doctors still have anomalous redundancy arrangements compared with the rest of the NHS workforce.
The effect of the proposal to accept a set of common provisions on consultants and SAS doctors will be that these non-pay elements of their terms and conditions will be brought into line with doctors and dentists in training and Agenda for Change staff, bringing equity across staff groups.
The BMA have responded that whilst they are keen to incorporate the new provisions on shared parental leave, they do not wish to accept the set of common provisions from the NHS Handbook as they wish to maintain distinct terms and conditions of service for the groups they represent. The Government see no basis for maintaining separate terms and conditions for these groups of doctors in relation to the shared schedules.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 30 May 2019 to Question 256964, what assessment he has made of whether there is an anomaly in the terms and conditions relating to NHS redundancy payments that fall within the non-pay schedules in the NHS Staff Handbook which govern equalities entitlements such as shared parental leave.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
NHS Employers have proposed to medical trades unions the adoption of a set of common provisions set out in the NHS Handbook. These terms and conditions include, but are not limited to, shared parental leave and redundancy. Medical trades unions have been invited to discuss the proposed changes in partnership through the established negotiation forums for the consultant and specialty and associate specialists (SAS) doctor contracts.
This is the same protocol as has previously been followed for proposing provisions agreed under the non-pay schedules in the NHS Handbook to consultants and SAS doctors.
In 2015, the NHS Staff Council agreed new redundancy provisions for the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service. The British Medical Association (BMA), who are part of the Staff Council, did not agree to amend the national terms and conditions which their members are employed upon. This resulted in redundancy terms being different for doctors compared with other National Health Service staff. In 2016 the new contract for doctors and dentists in training introduced schedules which brought them in line with the shared provisions for other NHS staff, including redundancy. However, as it stands, other grades of doctors still have anomalous redundancy arrangements compared with the rest of the NHS workforce.
The effect of the proposal to accept a set of common provisions on consultants and SAS doctors will be that these non-pay elements of their terms and conditions will be brought into line with doctors and dentists in training and Agenda for Change staff, bringing equity across staff groups.
The BMA have responded that whilst they are keen to incorporate the new provisions on shared parental leave, they do not wish to accept the set of common provisions from the NHS Handbook as they wish to maintain distinct terms and conditions of service for the groups they represent. The Government see no basis for maintaining separate terms and conditions for these groups of doctors in relation to the shared schedules.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 30 May 2019 to Question 256964, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on (a) consultants and (b) associate doctors (SAS) doctors if contractual terms from the Agenda for Change staff handbook relating to redundancy payments were automatically applied to those doctors as a requirement to access the enhanced shared parental leave NHS entitlement implemented in April 2019.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
NHS Employers have proposed to medical trades unions the adoption of a set of common provisions set out in the NHS Handbook. These terms and conditions include, but are not limited to, shared parental leave and redundancy. Medical trades unions have been invited to discuss the proposed changes in partnership through the established negotiation forums for the consultant and specialty and associate specialists (SAS) doctor contracts.
This is the same protocol as has previously been followed for proposing provisions agreed under the non-pay schedules in the NHS Handbook to consultants and SAS doctors.
In 2015, the NHS Staff Council agreed new redundancy provisions for the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service. The British Medical Association (BMA), who are part of the Staff Council, did not agree to amend the national terms and conditions which their members are employed upon. This resulted in redundancy terms being different for doctors compared with other National Health Service staff. In 2016 the new contract for doctors and dentists in training introduced schedules which brought them in line with the shared provisions for other NHS staff, including redundancy. However, as it stands, other grades of doctors still have anomalous redundancy arrangements compared with the rest of the NHS workforce.
The effect of the proposal to accept a set of common provisions on consultants and SAS doctors will be that these non-pay elements of their terms and conditions will be brought into line with doctors and dentists in training and Agenda for Change staff, bringing equity across staff groups.
The BMA have responded that whilst they are keen to incorporate the new provisions on shared parental leave, they do not wish to accept the set of common provisions from the NHS Handbook as they wish to maintain distinct terms and conditions of service for the groups they represent. The Government see no basis for maintaining separate terms and conditions for these groups of doctors in relation to the shared schedules.