Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses there were in Bournemouth in (i) 2010 and (ii) 2024.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold information on National Health Service staff by where they reside. Data on staff working across hospital and community health services is collected and reported based on the hospital trust that employs staff. Therefore, data is presented for the relevant local hospital trust.

The acute hospital trust that covered Bournemouth in 2010 was The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2020 there was a merger with Poole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and now Bournemouth is covered by the newly formed University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust. The Department does not hold data on NHS staffing levels for 2024, however the latest data published by NHS England is for November 2023, and is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

Direct comparisons of the change in staffing over time are difficult to make, due to the impact of the merger in 2020. However, the following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors and nurses working at The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in November 2010, and the number of FTE doctors and nurses working at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust in November 2023:

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether (a) she and (b) other Ministers in her Department plan to visit Bournemouth in the next six months.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The ministerial team within the Department for Business and Trade do not have any visits currently scheduled to visit Bournemouth in the next 6 months. We are still planning a forward look for this period of time, however, so this is subject to change.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much reallocated HS2 funding has been given to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council for road resurfacing.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Over the period 2023/24 to 2033/34 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council will receive at least £18.9 million of reallocated HS2 funding for highways maintenance, including road resurfacing.

As I’ve previously set out, Network North will see every penny of the £19.8 billion committed to the Northern leg of HS2 reinvested in the North. Every penny of the £9.6 billion committed to the Midlands leg will be reinvested in the Midlands. The £6.5 billion saved through our rescoped approach at Euston will be spread across every other region in the country – and it is from this pot that this funding comes.

In line with the published allocations, the Department for Transport has paid £604,000 of this to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council this financial year; the Council will receive the same amount in 2024/25. Future allocations are a matter for the next Spending Review.

This information, as with all highway maintenance funding allocations, is published on GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the delivery of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

We are making good progress on implementation of the Government’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan that was published in March 2023. We have banned nitrous oxide, increased fines for fly-tipping, littering and graffiti, and over 80,000 hours of uniformed patrols have been undertaken, targeting areas blighted by anti-social behaviour in 10 police force areas.

From 1st April we will be providing funding of £66m to every police force in England and Wales to support a hotspot enforcement approach for both anti-social behaviour and serious violence across England and Wales from April onwards.

We are strengthening police and local authority powers to tackle anti-social behaviour through a number of measures in the Criminal Justice Bill.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much investment has been made to improve Bournemouth hospital in the last 10 years.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information requested is not held centrally. University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Bournemouth Hospital, receives funding from national programmes and operational capital. From our national programmes, the trust received the following amounts since 2020:

• £12.9 million from the community diagnostic centres’ Diagnostics fund for development of a community diagnostic centre, providing vital testing to local residents closer to home for the 2021/22 to 2023/24 period;

• £102,000 from our Mental Health Crisis Fund to improve mental health urgent and emergency care facilities in 2022/23;

• Over £9 million from our Elective Recovery Targeted Investment Fund in 2021/22 for estate works and digital initiatives;

• £4.3 million in 2020/21 from our £450 million accident and emergency upgrades programme;

• £2.8 million in 2020/21 as part of our £600 million Critical Infrastructure Risk funding to address backlog maintenance across its estate; and

• Over £28 million from the New Hospital programme, for up to 2022/23, in scheme development funding for both their hospital schemes, which includes early works to prepare the sites ahead of main construction commencing.

The trust has also been allocated £147.3 million of NHS Upgrades Programme funding for the reconfiguration of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Poole Hospital, to a major planned site and major emergency site, with the project currently underway and construction ongoing.

In addition to the above funding, the Dorset Integrated Care Board (ICB), of which the trust is a partner member, has been allocated £61 million in operational capital funding in 2023/24, totalling over £200 million during this spending review period, 2022/23 to 2024/25. This amount is prioritised by the ICB according to local needs.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council in tackling fly-tipping.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The PM’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan sets out how we will help councils across the country take tougher action against those who fly-tip. Last year we raised the upper limit on the fixed penalty notices councils can issue for fly-tipping to £1,000 and from 1 April 2024 income from these penalties will be ringfenced for enforcement and clean-up specifically.

With the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, we are also developing a toolkit to help councils and others tackle fly-tipping. This includes guides on raising awareness of the household and business waste duty of care, presenting robust cases to court and setting up effective local partnerships. The toolkit, and other resources, are available at https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/national-fly-tipping-prevention-group.

We have also published a selection of case studies from projects which have received funding through our fly-tipping intervention grant scheme so that others can learn about those interventions which were most successful. These can be found at https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/fly-tipping-intervention-grant-scheme.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to expand support available through Jobcentres in Bournemouth East constituency.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The local Jobcentre team are collaborating with a range of partners to support people into work and employers fill vacancies. In addition to hosting jobs fairs and delivering sector-based work academy programmes (SWAPs), the Jobcentre is working with Bournemouth and Poole College, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, Citizens Advice, Faithworks, Seetec Plus, Aspire Training, Skills & Learning, International Care Network, Parks in Mind, the Boscombe Towns Fund and many other partners and organisations to provide an employment and skills offer to help meet the recruitment needs of local employers..

SWAPs are either active or planned in Facilities Management, Hospitality, IT and Communications, Education, Construction, Security, Manufacturing, Administration and the Civil Service through a range of local providers and these are being promoted through both Bournemouth Jobcentres closest to this Ward.

Disability Employment Advisers are supporting the Community Support Hub at a Health and Support Pop-Up: Community Wellness Event between the 18^th and 28^th March at the Bournemouth Arts Depot in Boscombe, where local people can access high-quality health services completely free of charge. This is in collaboration with BEAF Arts Co, Boscombe Innovation Hub, Help & Care, Community Action Network (CAN), and Healthwatch.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council to reduce the time taken to complete education, health and care plans.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission conducted a joint inspection of the local area of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole in June 2021 and identified eight areas of significant weaknesses. Following this inspection, the Local Area Partnership were required to produce a Written Statement of Action.

Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the department works closely with them using a range of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses.

The department has appointed a SEND specialist advisor to work closely with the Council and has approved a robust package of sector led improvement support from Bedford Borough Council. Amongst a wide range of support, the specialist advisor and Bedford Borough Council are supporting the Council with meeting the 20 week timescales within the Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan process and improving the quality of EHC plans being produced.

Alongside this support, the department has issued the Council with a statutory direction for SEND services on 26 February 2024. This is due to the inadequate progress the Council has made following the Written Statement of Action Plan since their local area SEND inspection in June 2021. In line with the direction, the department will be working closely with the local area to ensure they are supported in addressing issues and driving improvements to services.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase childcare provision in (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.

In the government’s 2023 Spring Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By the 2027/28 financial year, this government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping families with pre-school children with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever and is set to save working families using the full 30 funded hours up to £6,500 per year from when their child is nine months until they are five years old by September 2025.

Funding will be key to delivering the existing and expanded childcare entitlements. The department has substantially uplifted the hourly rate paid to local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. In the 2024/25 financial year, the department is investing over £400 million additional funding to deliver a significant uplift to hourly rates, building on the £204 million of additional funding paid in September.

To support the sector further to deliver the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate that providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used in the Spring Budget 2023. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an additional £500 million of investment over financial years 2025/26 and 2026/27.

Alongside increasing funding rates, the government is allocating £100 million in capital funding to local authorities in the 2023/24 financial year to support the expansion of childcare places for eligible working parents and to increase the supply of wraparound care in primary schools. The funding is anticipated to deliver thousands of new places across the country.

Following the department’s consultation on changes to the early years foundation stage framework, the department has introduced flexibilities that aim to make things easier for providers, as well as continuing to explore how the department can support the sector to deliver the additional places that will be required.

The department is ensuring a phased implementation of the expansion to the 30 hours offer to allow the market to develop the necessary capacity. On 2 February 2024, the department launched ‘Do something big, Work with small children’, a new national recruitment campaign to support the recruitment and retention of talented staff to support the expansion of the 30 hours offer. This campaign will raise the profile of the sector, support the recruitment of talented staff, and recognise the lifelong impact those working in early years and childcare have on children and their families.

The department is also continuing to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places across the sector. The department’s childcare and early years provider survey shows that both the number of places available and the workforce has increased since 2022.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, supports the local authority with any specific requirements through the department’s childcare sufficiency support contract.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on expanding Family Hubs to (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The £12 million family hubs transformation fund (TF1) is supporting 13 local authorities, including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), with the costs of transforming to a Family Hub model of service delivery and a strong Start for Life offer at its core. Further information about BCP's Family Hubs can be found on their website at: https://www.fid.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/family-information-directory/information/family-hubs/family-hubs-early-help-and-outreach-centres.

As part of the Family Hubs Start for Life programme, the department is also investing £300 million in 75 local authorities. Funding has been targeted to the most deprived local authorities, ensuring families get the support they need. This will fund a network of Family Hubs and specific support within those hubs for parent–infant mental health, infant feeding services, parenting support, home learning environment, and to establish parent-carer panels. In addition, all 75 local authorities will publish their Start for Life offer and the department will be providing funding for trials of innovative workforce models to a smaller number of local authorities.

As part of the Family Hubs Start for Life programme, the department is funding 4 local authorities in the South West, which are Bristol, Cornwall, Plymouth and Torbay. Further information on Family Hubs in Bristol is available at: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/residents/social-care-and-health/children-and-families/help-for-families/family-hubs. Further information on Family Hubs in Torbay is available at: https://torbayfamilyhub.org.uk/. Further information on Family Hubs in Plymouth is available at: https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/family-hubs. Further information on Family Hubs in Cornwall is available at: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/childrens-services/family-hubs/.

The department is currently in year 2 of the programme, and all local authorities have opened at least one Family Hub and are focusing on delivering the minimum expectations as set out in the Family Hubs and Start for Life local authority guide by March 2025. This guide is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council with (a) recycling and (b) rubbish collections.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is introducing Simpler Recycling to ensure that across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, no longer needing to check what their council will accept for recycling. The costs to deliver the new duties on local authorities for this reform will be funded by a combination of Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility payments provided to local authorities for the cost of collecting and managing household packaging waste through efficient and effective services, and reasonable new burdens funding from the Government to provide weekly food waste collections. We have brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the cost of additional bins and vehicles. Initial grants have now been issued to local authorities, including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, for their transitional capital funding allocation for financial year 2023/24. Transitional resource costs will be paid from the 2024/25 financial year and ongoing resource costs paid from 1 April 2026.

Found: Fabricant Olivia Blake Andrew Percy Simon Fell Kate Osborne Nadia Whittome Dehenna Davison Mr Tobias

Found: Fabricant Olivia Blake Andrew Percy Simon Fell Kate Osborne Nadia Whittome Dehenna Davison Mr Tobias

Found: Fabricant Olivia Blake Andrew Percy Simon Fell Kate Osborne Nadia Whittome Dehenna Davison Mr Tobias

Found: Letter dated 21/03/2024 from Andrew Murrison MP to Tobias Ellwood MP in response to a Written Parliamentary