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Written Question
Mental Health Services: Cumbria
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many established posts are filled by (a) discipline and (b) job role in South Cumbria CAMHS.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The information requested is held by NHS England, but it is not centrally validated.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Cumbria
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many established posts are vacant by (a) discipline and (b) job role in South Cumbria CAMHS.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The information requested is held by NHS England but is not centrally validated.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Cumbria
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many referrals have been accepted by South Cumbria CAMHS in each of the last 12 months.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The following table shows the number of referrals made received for patients aged between zero and 17 years old between December 2022 and November 2023, with data between April and November 2023 still being subject to revision:

Reporting period

Local authority

Number of referrals received in month for patients aged between zero and 17 years old at time of referral

Number of referrals received in month where patients aged between zero and 17 years old at time of referral and who have received at least one care contact any time after referral

December 2022

Cumberland

415

195

January 2023

Cumberland

465

225

February 2023

Cumberland

560

235

March 2023

Cumberland

580

230

April 2023

Cumberland

410

155

May 2023

Cumberland

545

225

June 2023

Cumberland

475

175

July 2023

Cumberland

460

175

August 2023

Cumberland

255

110

September 2023

Cumberland

360

185

October 2023

Cumberland

500

210

November 2023

Cumberland

640

210

December 2022

Westmorland and Furness

270

150

January 2023

Westmorland and Furness

365

200

February 2023

Westmorland and Furness

320

145

March 2023

Westmorland and Furness

425

220

April 2023

Westmorland and Furness

260

120

May 2023

Westmorland and Furness

320

155

June 2023

Westmorland and Furness

265

135

July 2023

Westmorland and Furness

270

125

August 2023

Westmorland and Furness

235

100

September 2023

Westmorland and Furness

310

125

October 2023

Westmorland and Furness

275

95

November 2023

Westmorland and Furness

390

110

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset, NHS England

Notes:

  1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
  2. For the area of South Cumbria, the former Cumbrian councils have been mapped to their new unitary local authorities with referrals based on the patient’s postcode. Cumberland Council comprises of the area formerly covered by Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland districts; and Westmorland and Furness Council comprises of the area formerly covered by Barrow-in-Furness, Eden and South Lakeland districts.

Written Question
Mental Health Services: Cumbria
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many referrals have been accepted by South Cumbria CAMHS in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

Information relating to children and young people was not collected prior to 2016/17. The following table shows the number of referrals received in Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness local authorities between 2016/17 and 2022/23, the latest period for which data is available:

Financial year

Local authority

Number of referrals received in year for patients aged between zero and 17 years old at time of referral

Number of referrals received in year where patients aged between zero and 17 years old at time of referral and who have received at least one care contact any time after referral

2016/17

Cumberland

250

110

2017/18

Cumberland

975

570

2018/19

Cumberland

4,030

2,520

2019/20

Cumberland

5,555

2,810

2020/21

Cumberland

5,025

2,670

2021/22

Cumberland

6,280

3,145

2022/23

Cumberland

6,140

2,795

2016/17

Westmorland and Furness

325

165

2017/18

Westmorland and Furness

1,060

670

2018/19

Westmorland and Furness

3,590

2,265

2019/20

Westmorland and Furness

4,665

2,305

2020/21

Westmorland and Furness

3,840

1,955

2021/22

Westmorland and Furness

4,370

2,270

2022/23

Westmorland and Furness

3,645

1,870

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset, NHS England

Notes:

  1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
  2. For the area of South Cumbria, the former Cumbrian councils have been mapped to their new unitary local authorities with referrals based on the patient’s postcode. Cumberland Council comprises of the area formerly covered by Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland districts; and Westmorland and Furness Council comprises of the area formerly covered by Barrow-in-Furness, Eden and South Lakeland districts.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Cumbria
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what crisis assessment and intervention services are available to young people under the age of 18 in South Cumbria.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has commissioned crisis and intensive support services for children and young people; this is known as the Responsive And Intensive Support Team (RAIST).

The teams work seven days a week from 8am to 8pm. The team providing support in South Cumbria has registered nurses and social workers who provide a full assessment of need and work with children and young people to develop a safety plan, risk assessment and care plan. Once this has been completed, a two-week pathway of care will be identified. The children and young people will have contact daily with the community mental health practitioners to develop new skills to support the prevention of further crisis.

Since the RAIST has been established with the north of the trust, there has been a reduction in the need for attendance to the emergency departments and admission to the paediatric wards.

For those with severe needs or in crisis, urgent mental health helplines operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are already available in all areas of the country. They are staffed by trained mental health professionals who can provide assessment and referrals to appropriate services. These crisis lines currently take around 200,000 calls a month and received five million calls between May 2020 and April 2022.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of young people who were referred to child and adolescent mental health services waited (a) two weeks, (b) one month, (c) three months, (d) six months and (e) longer than six months for an assessment in the last 12 months.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The following table shows the number of referrals of children and young people aged between zero and 17 years old in England in 2021/22, as well as the time waiting between referral and their second contact for the timescales available:

Number waiting between zero and four weeks

137,943

Percentage waiting between zero and four weeks

18.80%

Number of waiting between four and 12 weeks

62,037

Percentage waiting between four and 12 weeks

8.50%

Number waiting over 12 weeks

38,855

Percentage waiting over 12 weeks

5.30%

Total number

733,756

Source: NHS England

Note: These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution.


Written Question
Dentistry: Recruitment
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

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 promote the recruitment of dentists in communities with comparatively low levels of dental provision.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

Health Education England (HEE) set out a range of recommendations in their Advancing Dental Care Review, which aim to tackle recruitment, retention and attracting dentists to the NHS. One of their proposals was the creation of Centres for Dental Development in localities where there is a shortage in provision, which would bring together education and service elements in smaller units. HEE have now moved into their implementation stage through their Dental Education Reform Programme.


Written Question
Ophthalmic Services
Thursday 18th November 2021

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to mandate Integrated Care Systems to implement the NHS England Eye Care Planning and Implementation Guidance 2021-22.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

While integrated care systems are expected to work autonomously, they should take into account NHS England and NHS Improvement’s priorities. The Eye Care Planning and Implementation Guidance 2021/22 explains how systems should plan local eye care recovery and transformation in line with the requirements of the NHS England 2021/22 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Disease Control
Tuesday 23rd February 2021

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

What steps his Department is taking to support the NHS in tackling future waves of coronavirus.

Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

We have made over £59 billion available this year to support the response to COVID-19 and are committing a further £20.3 billion in 2021/22, of which £3 billion is to support National Health Service recovery from the impact of the pandemic.

The Government continues to ensure the NHS has the resourcing and support it needs to meet any pressures or costs arising from its continued response to COVID-19.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Cumbria
Friday 5th June 2020

Asked by: Simon Fell (Conservative - Barrow and Furness)

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 reasons for the reportedly high number of cases of covid-19 in Barrow-in-Furness and South Lakes.

Answered by Jo Churchill

Variation in the number of COVID-19 cases is caused by a number of factors including demography, behaviour and rate of testing. The rate of testing in the area has been high due to an early and proactive approach to testing taken by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay (UHMB) NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Furness General Hospital, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Westmorland General in Kendal in South Lakeland.

The Trust commenced swabbing of employees and household members who were symptomatic of coronavirus at the end of February 2020. Testing has included UHMB NHS Foundation Trust employees and household members, hospital inpatients, care home residents and staff, and key workers from other organisations and their households.