Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to provide housing for adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism who are currently living in in-patient units so that they can live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
On 26 January 2024, we published statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings. This guidance sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities across adult and children’s services should work together to support people in being discharged from mental health inpatient services, including mental health inpatient services for people with a learning disability and for autistic people. This guidance states that strong links should be made with relevant community services prior to, and during, the person’s stay in hospital, and that this should include links in relation to meeting the person’s housing needs.
We continue to support the delivery of new supported housing by providing capital subsidies to providers, through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme in England.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is represented on the Building the Right Support Delivery Board. This cross-Government, cross-system board is responsible for driving progress on reducing the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health inpatient services.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 enable adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism living in in-patient units to live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are taking action to support timely discharges of people with a learning disability and autistic people from mental health inpatient services, and to support them in leading ordinary lives in their communities. In January 2024, we published guidance which sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities should work together to support people to be discharged from mental health inpatient services.
To improve community support, in 2023/24 we invested an additional £121 million as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for children and young people’s keyworkers. The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in July 2022, sets out cross-Government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
As set out in NHS England statutory guidance published on 9 May 2023, we expect integrated care boards to assign an executive lead role for learning disability and autism to a suitable board member. The named lead will support the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number and proportion of NHS buildings that contain asbestos.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual National Health Service organisations are legally responsible for maintaining their estates. NHS England continues to work with trusts to ensure their estates are a safe environment for patients and staff. Where asbestos may pose a safety risk, such as when disturbed during building works, experts are brought in to safely dispose of it.
The Government allocated £4.2 billion capital this financial year for the National Health Service to support local priorities, including where appropriate removing asbestos from buildings.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 remove asbestos from NHS buildings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual National Health Service organisations are legally responsible for maintaining their estates. NHS England continues to work with trusts to ensure their estates are a safe environment for patients and staff. Where asbestos may pose a safety risk, such as when disturbed during building works, experts are brought in to safely dispose of it.
The Government allocated £4.2 billion capital this financial year for the National Health Service to support local priorities, including where appropriate removing asbestos from buildings.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing free prescriptions on the health of (a) all benefit claimants and (b) benefit claimants with long-term health conditions.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s policy remains that, where a benefit entitles a claimant to free prescriptions, the claimant must be in receipt of that benefit. For example, Universal Credit claimants must be in receipt of a positive award of Universal Credit and their earnings in their last assessment period must meet the income thresholds to entitle them to free prescriptions.
Not everyone who is subject to the new claim closure measure will lose access to free prescriptions. As always, if entitlement to other benefits is reliant solely on a Universal Credit claim to establish eligibility, that eligibility will cease if the claim is closed. Claimants who have more severe health conditions and vulnerabilities are excluded from conditionality, sanctions and claim closure.
There is a variety of exemption criteria beyond receiving Universal Credit which would qualify an individual for free prescriptions. As such, no assessment has been made of removing free prescriptions for all benefit claimants or benefits claimants with long-term health conditions. Around 89% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether people are pregnant or have recently had a baby, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, get a war pension or have a qualifying medical condition.
People on a low income who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges can seek help under the NHS Low Income Scheme, which provides help with health costs on an income-related basis. For those who do not qualify for exemption, prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost. A three-monthly PPC or an annual PPC will save people money if they need four or more items in three months or 13 or more items in 12 months.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many calls were responded to by mental health joint response cars in London in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not routinely collected centrally. Ambulance performance data is published monthly by NHS England and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mental health ambulances are in service in (a) London and (b) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not routinely collect data on the numbers of mental health ambulances in service across England.
NHS England advises that London Ambulance Service (LAS) have no mental health ambulances in operation. However, six mental health joint response cars are in operation across London. LAS expect twelve mental health ambulances to be in operation next year.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many calls were responded to by mental health ambulances in London in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No calls were responded to by mental health ambulances in London, as London Ambulance Service (LAS) does not currently have mental health ambulances in operation.
The LAS fleet includes six mental health joint response cars which are able to respond to mental health incidents, and LAS expect twelve mental health ambulances to be in operation next year.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 20 February 2023 to Question 143688 on Orthopaedics: Surgery, if she will make an assessment of the potential (a) economic impact of delays in orthopaedic surgery and (b) impact of such delays on people with arthritis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking steps with NHS England to support people waiting for appointments and surgery for long-term conditions, including in trauma and orthopaedics, by offering online support, increasing elective capacity, and encouraging personalised support.
As set out in its elective recovery delivery plan, the National Health Service is increasing elective capacity and improving patient pathways to reduce avoidable delays in care. This includes funding new surgical hubs and expanding those already in operation to increase elective capacity and improve treatment waiting times for patients with long-term conditions. Through improvements to patient pathways, there will be greater end-to-end support, including help to prevent patients sustaining secondary injuries.
In addition, NHS England is developing further guidance to support local health systems to provide personalised and targeted support for patients and their carers, to help them manage their symptoms, prevent deterioration, and recover effectively from treatment.
NHS England launched the My Planned Care platform in February 2022, giving patients advice and support to manage their health and avoid significant deterioration of symptoms whilst they wait for appointments. This online platform includes advice on movement, medication, and mental health.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support her Department provides to people who are waiting for (a) trauma, (b) joint replacement and (c) other orthopaedic treatment who are unable to live independently until they receive that treatment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking steps with NHS England to support people waiting for appointments and surgery for long-term conditions, including in trauma and orthopaedics, by offering online support, increasing elective capacity, and encouraging personalised support.
As set out in its elective recovery delivery plan, the National Health Service is increasing elective capacity and improving patient pathways to reduce avoidable delays in care. This includes funding new surgical hubs and expanding those already in operation to increase elective capacity and improve treatment waiting times for patients with long-term conditions. Through improvements to patient pathways, there will be greater end-to-end support, including help to prevent patients sustaining secondary injuries.
In addition, NHS England is developing further guidance to support local health systems to provide personalised and targeted support for patients and their carers, to help them manage their symptoms, prevent deterioration, and recover effectively from treatment.
NHS England launched the My Planned Care platform in February 2022, giving patients advice and support to manage their health and avoid significant deterioration of symptoms whilst they wait for appointments. This online platform includes advice on movement, medication, and mental health.