Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the special schools eye care service has adequate funding to enable the long-term commissioning of those services.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. NHS England has already engaged with the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee, which includes the Association of Optometrists.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will hold discussions with the Association of Optometrists on the adequacy of funding for the special schools eye care service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. NHS England has already engaged with the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee, which includes the Association of Optometrists.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will hold discussions with the Association of Optometrists on the adequacy of funding for the special schools' eye care service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually on the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. NHS England has already engaged with the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee, which includes the Association of Optometrists.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that the NHS Workforce Plan contains a detailed analysis of the long-term funding allocations required to develop a healthcare workforce capable of delivering recommended levels of care into the future.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has and will continue to prioritise investment into the National Health Service. We worked closely with NHS leadership to agree £3.3 billion per year of new funding for the NHS in England at the autumn statement. This is on top of the historic funding settlement that the NHS received at the last spending review.
The work of the Long Term Workforce Plan will be used to inform future Government work on how to best meet the needs of patients and the NHS workforce. Funding plans will be subject to business and financial planning and investment decisions once the work has been completed. Funding plans beyond the current Spending Review period will be subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the terms of reference are for the joint NHS and Health Education England diagnostic workforce board; whether there is an imaging subgroup of the board; what role the diagnostic workforce board has had in shaping the NHS long-term workforce plan; and what role the board will have in the implementation of the NHS long-term workforce plan.
Answered by Will Quince
A copy of the Terms of Reference for the joint NHS England and Health Education England Diagnostic Workforce Board is attached. There is an imaging workforce sub-group of this board.
Individual members of the Diagnostic Workforce Board have had an opportunity to feed into the development of the Long Term Workforce Plan for the National Health Service at appropriate stages and in the capacity of their roles. In line with the Terms of Reference, the board will have a role in supporting implementation of the workforce plan.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
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 actions required to ensure that the NHS long-term workforce plan can be implemented efficiently with regards to establishing (a) governance structures and (b) accountability checks.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has committed to publishing the long term workforce plan this year. Further information on governance arrangements will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the merger of NHS England and Health Education England on the implementation of the NHS long-term workforce plan.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has been developed jointly by NHS England and Health Education England (HEE), reflecting their close working relationship irrespective of the merger. The merger builds on cooperation and joint working between HEE and NHS England and will help ensure that the merged organisation performs its functions as effectively as possible, including on the implementation of the Long-Term Workforce Plan.
The Department will continue to monitor and track the performance of the new NHS England through the NHS England mandate.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
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 ensure that the merger of Health Education England and NHS England will not impact the implementation of the NHS long-term workforce plan.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has been developed jointly by NHS England and Health Education England (HEE), reflecting their close working relationship irrespective of the merger. The merger builds on cooperation and joint working between HEE and NHS England and will help ensure that the merged organisation performs its functions as effectively as possible, including on the implementation of the Long-Term Workforce Plan.
The Department will continue to monitor and track the performance of the new NHS England through the NHS England mandate.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter of 9 December 2022 from 33 health and care organisations on the rehabilitation workforce and the NHS long-term workforce plan.
Answered by Will Quince
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care received the letter of 9 December 2022 and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
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 improve access to stroke rehabilitation after discharge from hospital when discharge funding for step down care ends on 31st March 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
NHS England have invested in the Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation (Squire) programme. Regional Squire managers in collaboration with integrated stroke delivery networks and newly formed integrated care boards are working to improve access to community-based stroke rehabilitation
The Government is making available up to £1.6 billion of additional funding to reduce delayed discharges in 2023/24 and 2024/25. This is on top of the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund already announced for 2022/23. NHS England recommends that stroke survivors access specialist community-based stroke rehabilitation services, which facilitate transfer of care from hospital to home and provide specialist rehabilitation in their home or place of residence.