Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Philip Dunne and Catherine West(7 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Dunne
As my hon. Friend knows, we are launching a second wave of nursing associates at the beginning of April. I am pleased to be able to confirm that Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, is one of the trusts that will receive nursing associates, and that the system is partly designed to give social care workers opportunities to upskill.
Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)
The Secretary of State will be aware of a recent High Court case concerning a surrogacy issue that has led to legal limbo. Does he agree that the existing legislation has let children down, and that reform is urgently needed?
NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans
Debate between Philip Dunne and Catherine West(8 years, 3 months ago)
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Catherine West
I thank the Minister for giving way and hope he does well in his first performance here in the House. What percentage of acute trusts are in deficit, and what proportion of clinical commissioning groups are in special measures?
Mr Dunne
Many trusts were in deficit in the last financial year, and those deficits were funded by the Department of Health. Looking forward, we are using the financial discipline of control totals not to instigate cuts, as the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington suggested, but to hold the accountable managers to account for delivering within the financial envelope that those control totals represent. That is what a responsible Government do—we give money to public services and expect them to live within those means. This year the NHS has received one of the largest cash settlements it has ever had, three times more than the rate of inflation.