Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will have discussions with her international counterparts on mutual recognition of dentistry schemes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To practise in the United Kingdom, dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) are required to hold registration with the General Dental Council (GDC). To be entered into the dentists register, an individual must hold a recognised UK dentistry qualification; an European Economic Area qualification recognised under European Union exit standstill arrangements; hold one of a small number of overseas qualifications awarded before 2001 and recognised under legacy arrangements; or they must sit the Overseas Registration Exam or Licence in Dental Surgery examinations to demonstrate they have suitable skill and experience to practise in the UK. Under legislative changes which came into force in March 2023, the GDC was granted the flexibility to recognise additional overseas qualifications as sufficient to achieve registration to practise in the UK. The Department will continue to discuss whether there are other qualifications or registration routes that could be considered with the GDC and other relevant partners as appropriate.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had recent discussions with the General Dental Council on increased investment in the applications process for dentists with overseas qualifications.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department meets regularly with the General Dental Council (GDC) to discuss application and registration processes for dentists with overseas qualifications. The Department welcomes the GDC’s recent announcements that it is increasing the number of places available to sit the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE). The GDC has tripled the number of places on sittings of ORE Part 1 for all sittings from August 2023 to the end of 2024. The GDC has also added an additional sitting of ORE Part 2 in 2024, bringing the total number of sittings up to four.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with (a) autism and (b) a learning disability reside in a mental health inpatient unit that has most recently been rated as inadequate by the CQC; and for how many of those people have additional (i) safeguards and (ii) mitigations been put in place to monitor their (A) safety, (B) wellbeing and (C) treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The latest published Assuring Transformation data shows that there are 80 people with a learning disability and autistic people reported in a mental health inpatient setting which the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rates as inadequate. This is based on inpatient data at the end of August 2023, and CQC inspection ratings as of 2 October 2023.
Where, by exception, a person with a learning disability or autistic person is admitted into a setting rated as inadequate at the point of admission, additional safeguards and mitigations should be put in place. NHS England has established a process whereby any such admission should be notified to the relevant integrated care bord (ICB) Chief Executive Officer, National Health Service regional team and Host Commissioner and reported as an exception to the ICB Quality Board or equivalent. Information on specific safeguards and mitigations for individuals is not held centrally.
Each person with a learning disability and autistic person in a mental health hospital should have regular Care (Education) and Treatment Reviews in line with national policy.
Commissioner Oversight Guidance was published in February 2021, which sets out that people with a learning disability and autistic people who are in hospital outside their local area will be visited by the commissioner of their care regularly every six weeks for children and every eight weeks for adults.
In June 2023, we updated the Host Commissioner Guidance, this guidance sets out expectations for ICBs to act as a ‘host’ commissioner to provide additional oversight of care in mental health hospitals in their geographical area, where people with a learning disability and autistic people are cared for.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 15 May 2023 to Question 183773 on Autism and Learning Disability: Community Care, what analysis his Department undertook to identify the £121 million of funding allocation for the Building the right support programme in the 2023-24 financial year; and what estimate he has made of funding requirements for subsequent financial years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The £121 million of funding to improve community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people forms part of the wider NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) funding. The £121m allocation in 2023/24 was determined based upon consideration of the following:
Additionally, the following table shows a distribution to integrated care boards on a ‘fair shares’ basis, in line with the LTP trajectory for the learning disability and autism programme, increasing year on year up to the end of the LTP funding cycle:
Financial Year | 2020/21 (£) | 2021/22 (£) | 2022/23 (£) | 2023/24 (£) |
Community/CYP Keyworkers | 18,000 | 39,000 | 69,000 | 119,000 |
HOPE(S) | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
Total | 19,000 | 41,000 | 71,000 | 121,000 |
Note: HOPE(S) is a training model commissioned by NHS England, which aims to embed good practice across inpatient services and reduce the use of long-term segregation and restrictive practices for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
Funding for 2024/25 will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the independent report by RedQuadrant, entitled Building the Right support: an analysis of funding flows, published by his Department on 14 July 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to publish a response to this report. The primary recommendations made in this report by RedQuadrant were used to inform the Building the Right Support Action Plan published in July 2022.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to reduce the waiting list for autism assessments in Avon and Wiltshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on autism when commissioning services. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision
Each ICB in England is expected to have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, supporting the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of people with a learning disability and autistic people, including in relation to appropriate autism assessment pathways. NHS England has published guidance on these roles.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services. This guidance will help the National Health Service improve autism assessment pathways and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service.
In addition, NHS England publish quarterly data on how many people are waiting for an autism assessment and for how long. These are experimental statistics; however, the data does provide useful information nationally and locally to support local areas to improve their performance and to reduce assessment waiting times.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support the NHS provides to (a) children and (b) young adults after receiving an autism diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for York Outer on 12 September 2023 to Question 197738.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 tackle autism assessment backlogs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Rt Hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells on 8 September 2023 to Question 195909.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 the 25 of May 2023 to Question 185279 on Health Services and with reference to Lord Markham's letter of 30 August 2023 to the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, whether the figures on the average impact across the 24 trusts involved in realising benefits through the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme on (a) waiting list reduction and (b) increased efficient usage theatres are available; and if will take steps to publish that data.
Answered by Will Quince
The Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme is still in the pilot stage and data continues to be collated to assess the benefits that are being derived from the implementation of the Care Coordination Solution tool. The tool remains at different stages of implementation in each of the pilot trusts and NHS England is working with the trusts. NHS England is committed to sharing data in due course as the tool is embedded further and more data points become available.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential (a) overall impact and (b) impact on each trust involved of the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme on (i) waiting lists, (ii) staff performance, (iii) treating patients and (iv) theatre scheduling.
Answered by Will Quince
The Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme is monitoring benefits against waiting lists, staff performance, treating patients and theatre scheduling.
These benefits are collected on a regular basis and will grow as more trusts embed the use of the tool in their operational processes. The programme is assessing benefits at a trust level, monitoring the delivery of the solution and levels of adoption. Benefits are discussed with Trusts and used to support the continued drive for adoption and use of the Care Coordination Solution. As of May 2023, the programme is delivering benefits in 24 trusts for data validation and 23 for theatre utilisation.