Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase the uptake of breast screenings in Slough.

All breast screening services in England are commissioned by regional commissioning teams.

In Slough, there are several steps that the East Berkshire Breast Screening Service has taken to increase the uptake and coverage of breast screening, in conjunction with key partners. These include: working with the NHS England Thames Valley Screening and Immunisation Team to complete a formal Health Equity Audit and identify actions to improve uptake in Slough; working with local general practices in Slough to ensure relevant information about their patients is shared with the breast screening services, in order to provide an accessible service that meets the needs of the local Slough population and to maximise the uptake of breast screening; engaging local voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations to promote breast screening, provide materials in languages used by the local community, and to actively seek to work in areas where uptake is lower with the aim of understanding reasons for non-attendance; working with NHS England to produce a video promoting their screening programme, with voice overs presented in various different languages that are spoken locally; conducting patient surveys to ensure feedback from women is being captured, and where appropriate, making necessary changes; sending leaflets in an individual’s spoken language to accompany the invitation, where the service holds this information; allowing women to rebook for a day/time that is more suited if necessary; andsending text reminders to women before their appointment is due to take place.