Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding her Department has provided for the expansion of autism services in Wandsworth in the last 12 months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Information is not held centrally on funding for the expansion of autism services in Wandsworth. South West London Integrated Care Board (ICB) has been allocated £107,000 in 2023/24 from the national £4.2 million service development funding for autism, to improve the local autism assessment pathway for children and young people and to continue the Autism in Schools Programme. In 2022/23 the ICB received £97,000 from the broader £2.5 million service development funding for autism, to improve the local autism assessment pathway.
These service development funding allocations are in addition to the funding that South West London ICB spends on autism services from its core funding allocations.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve the supply of elvanse.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites.
The National Patient Safety Alert to the National Health Service advises healthcare professionals on the management of patients during this time. We have well-established processes for managing and mitigating medicine supply issues, which involve working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.
The Department has been working closely with manufacturers of all ADHD medicines and some issues have now been resolved, including Elvanse Adult 50 milligram and 70 milligram capsules. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, including other presentations of Elvanse, which are expected to resolve in early 2024.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 29 March 2023 to Question 173068 on Mental Health Services: Artificial Intelligence, when he plans to publish the results of the app testing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The real-world testing of WYSA, which is one of the projects for the AI in Health and Care Award, finished in August 2023. The results are being independently evaluated by a Technology Specific Evaluation team from iCAIRD and are expected to be published early 2024.
Evaluations of AI in Health and Care projects will fill key evidence gaps for relevant published evidence standards frameworks and focus on accuracy, safety, effectiveness, value, fit with site, implementation, feasibility of scale up and sustainability of scale up.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the reported increase in incidence of respiratory diseases in China.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency is closely monitoring the situation in China and will continue to work with international partners to assess the emerging information as it becomes available.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 promote the uptake of Covid-19 booster vaccinations.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Throughout autumn and winter, the Government and the National Health Service are encouraging those that are eligible to take up the Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 vaccination offer. A range of communications are in place to ensure those eligible are aware of the offer. This includes:
- NHS England’s national call/recall programme which coordinates mail and text message prompts to those eligible; in addition to communications from general practices and pharmacies;
- an extensive public information, media and external affairs communications programme;
- a paid Winter Vaccinations campaign ‘Get vaccinated. Get winter strong’, which launched on 1 November 2023 and is running up to 17 December 2023 across a range of broadcast and digital channels supported by audience tailored activity;
- a health and social care workforce communications programme; and
- provision by NHS England of financial arrangements to encourage providers to accelerate take up of both vaccines.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 promote the uptake of influenza vaccinations.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Throughout autumn and winter, the Government and the National Health Service are encouraging those that are eligible to take up the Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 vaccination offer. A range of communications are in place to ensure those eligible are aware of the offer. This includes:
- NHS England’s national call/recall programme which coordinates mail and text message prompts to those eligible; in addition to communications from general practices and pharmacies;
- an extensive public information, media and external affairs communications programme;
- a paid Winter Vaccinations campaign ‘Get vaccinated. Get winter strong’, which launched on 1 November 2023 and is running up to 17 December 2023 across a range of broadcast and digital channels supported by audience tailored activity;
- a health and social care workforce communications programme; and
- provision by NHS England of financial arrangements to encourage providers to accelerate take up of both vaccines.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 prepare for future viral respiratory diseases.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has permanent standing capacity to prepare for, prevent and respond to threats to health, including viral respiratory diseases. As part of its role, UKHSA maintains critical national infrastructure and specialist capabilities, such as high containment laboratories and specialist diagnostic equipment, required to respond to emerging and high consequence infectious diseases.
In addition, the Government has established the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness within UKHSA to ensure the United Kingdom’s future pandemic response is faster, more effective, and more efficient to reduce the negative impacts of health threats to the UK.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number and proportion of inmates who have a stammer in prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The data requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many inmates have (a) been assessed by and (b) received therapy from a speech and language therapist in each prison in England and Wales in each year since 2010.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many speech and language therapists work in each prison in England and Wales as of 13 October 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Some prisons may have speech and language therapists in post while others may be brought in as required, however this data is not held centrally. People in prison are entitled to the same standard and range of health and social care services as they would receive in the community.