Personal Independence Payment: Epilepsy

(asked on 28th March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral Answer by the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work on 27 March 2017, Official Report, columns 22-23, what experience and qualifications the healthcare professionals providing clinical support in assessment centres have in relation to epilepsy.


Answered by
Penny Mordaunt Portrait
Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This question was answered on 5th April 2017

All Health Professionals undertaking assessments on behalf of the Department must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training, experience and competence. They must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor. They must also be fully registered and have at least two years’ post full-registration experience.

A senior Personal Independence Payment (PIP) clinician will in all cases be a Health Professional who is experienced in PIP and has a proven excellent track record in quality and other performance metrics and has been successful at interview for a clinical management position.

All Health Professionals complete training on neurological conditions including epilepsy during their initial training. They also practise several clinical scenarios involving epilepsy as part of that initial training course.

In addition to the introductory training and mentoring support, they also have access and can refer to clinical reports on epilepsy which can be reviewed at any point before during or after an assessment has taken place.

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