Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many specialist nurses are available for children suffering from (a) epilepsy and (b) mental health in (i) North Yorkshire and (ii) the UK.

The current numbers of specialistnurses for children suffering from epilepsy and mental health problems available in North Yorkshire and the United Kingdom are not collected centrally. The National Health Service annual workforce census provides information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the NHS in England but does not identify specialist nurses separately.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) holds a register of nurses and midwives registered to practise in the UK. Nurses must be registered with the NMC to work as a nurse. To keep their registration up to date, nurses also need to renew their registration every three years. The register does not include details of nursing specialties.

More information is available at the NMC websiteat www.nmc-uk.org/

The provision of health services in the UK is a devolved issue. The contacts for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are available from the following links:

Northern Ireland:

www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index.htm

Scotland:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health

Wales:

wales.gov.uk/topics/health/?lang=en

The Government has supported the development of a range of specialist roles within nursing. It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses. In this context, the Government recognises that more could be done by some local healthcare organisations to prioritise preventative care and better support children's needs. Specialist nurses can play an important role in this which can both save the NHS money and, more importantly, provide better care for patients.