Found: This puts mental health services under strain that could have been avoided.

Found: Ms A may have been eating poorly which would impact the family’s health and add to the cost of health

Found: welfare benefits advice via civil legal aid would reduce burdens on adult social care teams and NHS health

Found: Sexual Health (WISH) programme, affecting the number of women able to access sexual and reproductive health

Found: Sexual Health (WISH) programme, affecting the number of women able to access sexual and reproductive health

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when the major conditions strategy will be published.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Our intention is to publish the Major Conditions Strategy in the summer of this year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the 2021 NICE guidance for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has been implemented (1) in general, and (2) in relation to the training health and social care professionals on how to employ the new recommendations, (a) establishing a UK-wide network of hospital-based ME/CFS specialist services, (b) making all NHS services accessible and capable of providing personalised ongoing care and support to those with ME/CFS, and (c) ensuring social care provision for ME/CFS is monitored and regularly reviewed.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No formal assessment has been made of the extent to which the 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), has been implemented.

NHS England does not centrally commission services for ME. Services to support people living with ME are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs) to meet the needs of their local population, and are not reviewed or assessed by NHS England centrally. In October 2023, the British Association of Clinicians in ME published their ME/CFS National Services Survey 2023. This survey provides insight on the services being delivered for adults, and children and young people, living with ME. A copy of the survey is attached.

In relation to the training of health and social care professionals, it is the duty of clinicians to keep themselves appraised of best practice, in particular guidance issued by the NICE. The Department is working with NHS England to develop an e-learning course on ME for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. This has involved feedback and input from the ME Research Collaborative (MERC) Patient Advisory Group. The Medical Schools Council will promote the NHS England e-learning package on ME to all United Kingdom medical schools, and encourage medical schools to provide undergraduates with direct patient experience of ME.

The Department published My full reality: an interim delivery plan for ME/CFS in August 2023, which sets out a number of actions to improve the experiences and outcomes for people living with the condition, including better education of professionals and improvements to service provision. More information about the interim plan is available on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format.

Alongside the publication of the interim delivery plan, we ran a public consultation to build a picture of how well the plan meets the needs of the ME community, and to understand if there are any gaps where further action may be necessary. The Department is currently analysing over 3,000 responses to the consultation on the interim delivery plan on ME, and will publish a final delivery plan later this year.

In relation to the monitoring of social care provision for individuals with ME, the Department has made a landmark shift in how we hold local authorities to account for their adult social care duties, through a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessment. The CQC will examine how well local authorities deliver their Care Act duties, increasing transparency and accountability and, most importantly, driving improved outcomes for people, including those with ME, who draw on care and support. The CQC completed five pilot assessments and is now rolling out assessment to all local authorities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many incidents of patient records or personal data being accessed without due cause have been recorded in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Health and care organisations are required to submit data breach reports within 72 hours of an incident. Data breach incidents are reported to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), who then investigate and decide what action to take. Notifiable breaches are those that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of the individual, referred to as the data subject. NHS England publishes the number of incidents reported through the Data Security and Protection Toolkit on its website. In 2023, 996 incidents were reported to the ICO, but not all of these would have involved patient details being accessed without due cause. The ICO publishes details on its website of incidents where it takes enforcement action.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department issues on the (a) adoption by and (b) use in the NHS of System One computer software.

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

Decisions on the procurement, adoption, and use of SystmOne are made locally as part of standard procurement procedures, which adhere to compliant procurement guidelines. No additional guidance has been provided by the Department on the adoption or usage of SystmOne in the National Health Service.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that NHS trusts are made aware of (1) insourcing arrangements as a route to reducing local waiting lists, and (2) the benefits of insourcing for (a) patients, and (b) NHS trusts.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Independent sector providers have a significant role to play in supporting the National Health Service as trusted partners, to recover elective services. The Elective Recovery Taskforce was launched in 2022 to consider how capacity across the system could be best utilised, including how insourcing could be used to meet the ambitions on long waits. The taskforce concluded its work by publishing an implementation plan in August 2023, which sets out a series of actions that have either been delivered, or will be delivered, over the coming months.

Local systems are best placed to consider how to utilise insourcing as part of their delivery plans, in a way which works for their areas. To support the system, NHS England produced Guidance for trusts on the use of insourcing and NHS Shared Business Services produced the Insourcing of Clinical Services Framework Agreement.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made regarding the potential for insourcing to tackle NHS waiting lists.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Independent sector providers have a significant role to play in supporting the National Health Service as trusted partners, to recover elective services. The Elective Recovery Taskforce was launched in 2022 to consider how capacity across the system could be best utilised, including how insourcing could be used to meet the ambitions on long waits. The taskforce concluded its work by publishing an implementation plan in August 2023, which sets out a series of actions that have either been delivered, or will be delivered, over the coming months.

Local systems are best placed to consider how to utilise insourcing as part of their delivery plans, in a way which works for their areas. To support the system, NHS England produced Guidance for trusts on the use of insourcing and NHS Shared Business Services produced the Insourcing of Clinical Services Framework Agreement.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that patient records and personal data are only accessible to those who need to view them, and to ensure connections between software systems in health facilities include suitable control measures for this risk.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

National IT systems must ensure that users can be identified correctly, and are given appropriate access. This is achieved using identity verification capabilities, including creating a national digital identity for each authorised user.

Each local National Health Service organisation which requires access to the national IT systems is required to set up its own local Registration Authority (RA) which consists of people and processes who are trained to create identities and grant access for their staff to the national IT systems. NHS England has published the RA Policy requirements with which every local NHS organisation that has an RA must comply. This reflects current best practice for identity and access management as informed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance.

The RA Policy also allows non-NHS health and care organisations providing direct care to run their own RA service. RA hosting is subject to meeting requirements and assessment criteria, which are soon to be published.

The RA process includes the use of RA codes, assigned to professional users’ smartcards to give them access to the correct information within national IT systems.

The RA codes which are assigned for a specific user will allow that user to create and process referrals appropriately depending on their job role.

Local organisations which have an RA function are required to have an RA audit policy and conduct annual audits on NHS Smartcard usage as part of their RA governance. RA Managers (those responsible for administering the RA function within an organisation) must implement a process to run the RA reports on a regular basis.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the health and social care sectors regarding the implications for those sectors of the proposed new net migration measures, since the announcement of those measures on 4 December 2023.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Immigration Salary list can be found on page 230 to 232 of the statement of changes laid in Parliament on 14 March. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f18e57ff11701fff6159bb/E03091226_-_HC_590_-_Immigration_Rules_Changes__Web_Accessible_.pdf.

The Government consult regularly with a broad range of stakeholders, including those in social care, on a regular basis.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent qualified school nurses are working in a public health-commissioned (a) school nursing service, (b) zero to 19 service and (c) five to 19 healthy child programme in each local authority area.

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

Since April 2013, local authorities have held responsibility for commissioning public health services for school-aged children. These services may be commissioned from a range of providers both inside and outside of the National Health Service. NHS England publishes monthly workforce data which includes information on the number of school nurses directly employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations in England. This data will not represent the total number of school nurses delivering local authority commissioned services, as it will excludes places where services are commissioned outside of the NHS. It is not possible to identify the specific service or programme that these staff are working within.

While data is not available at a local authority level, the following table shows full-time equivalent (FTE) school nurses working within NHS trusts and other core organisations in England by Government Office Region, as of November 2023:

We want the UK government to:

Extend VAT exemption to all registered mental health service providers, including counsellors and psychotherapists.

Conduct a comprehensive review of the impact of VAT on access to mental health services.

Found: Conduct a comprehensive review of the impact of VAT on access to mental health services.

Found: Prisoners Bill hearing and on release; and will signpost relevant services (including mental health

Found: Scotland) Regulations 1989 as amended (1989 No 364); and (c) in Northern Ireland, the Provision of Health

Found: Scotland) Regulations 1989 as amended (1989 No 364); and (c) in Northern Ireland, the Provision of Health

Found: supplierengagement@fcdo.gov.uk project_10269 CORPORATE SERVICES 1HMG Healthcare PIPELINE: 1HMG contract for health

Found: NHS England are tendering the Health, Social Care and Mental Health services at HMP Wymott in 2024/2

Found: • A bout 70 prisoners were referre d to mental health services each month.

Found: The demand for quality sexual and reproductive health services, that protect the rights of women and

Found: representations to, and liaising with, bodies or persons responsible for: o providing care, accommodation, health

Found: fitness - Excluding motorised vehicles, firearms, swimming, and skating E(e) Medical or health

Found: º 160/14 (18/06/2014) - Medical Waste and Health Services Energ y Law no. 14 -A/96 (31/05/1996) -

Found: Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics, Performance February 2024

Found: Out of Area Placements in Mental Health Services, January 2024

Found: NHS England are tendering the Health, Social Care and Mental Health services at HMP Wymott in 2024/2

Found: • A bout 70 prisoners were referre d to mental health services each month.

Found: Health Inequalities in Scotland: trends in deaths, health and wellbeing, health behaviours, and health

Found: • Health services: This includes equitable and timely access to high quality healthcare, treatment

Found: their expertise and knowledge of the delivery of social care, social work and primary and community health

Found: • Over £1 .3 billion for mental health services, with £290.2 million direct investment – more than

Found: David Strang’s (2020) Independent Review of Mental Health Services in Tayside noted that at a national

Found: and assurance of mental health services, including the powers of HIS and MWC.

Found: services.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing with territorial NHS boards to develop best practice guidelines on communicating alternative pathways to primary care to the public.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

The Scottish Government has established procedures for sharing information on communications campaigns and messaging at key points with territorial health boards. For example, this may involve presenting the results of creative or message testing or post-campaign evaluations. The learnings from these can be applied to the communications activity undertaken by territorial health boards.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to ensure that a more preventative approach to the health and wellbeing of young people is being adopted within communities across all government portfolio areas.

Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health

The Scottish Government wants to ensure that every child can attain the highest level of health and wellbeing possible.

Between pre-birth and starting school, all children in Scotland are entitled to support from our universal Health Visiting service. In addition, 3- and 4-year-olds are entitled to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare (ELC). We have also invested in targeted early years interventions such as the Family Nurse Partnership, ELC funding for eligible 2-year-olds and perinatal and infant mental health services. This work is underpinned by our Early Child Development Transformational Change Programme which focuses on prevention, better integration of policies, identifying policy and implementation gaps, and building collaboration across the whole system.

The health and wellbeing of school-aged children is also supported by Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). Health and Wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in CfE and is one of the three core areas that are the responsibility of all staff in a school. Furthermore, the Scottish Government has invested in the recruitment of School Nurses and School Counsellors, both of whom are able to prevent the escalation of health and wellbeing concerns.

Our work across all child health and wellbeing interventions continues to be guided by ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC). GIRFEC is embedded across Scottish Government portfolios and helps to safeguard, support and promote the health and wellbeing of all children and young people.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what review it will undertake of the funding formula for health services, in light of the projected population growth in the NHS Lothian area.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

We remain committed to ensuring funding is distributed equitably across the country as set out in the 2021-22 Programme for Government. The existing National Resource Allocation Formula (NRAC) is updated on an ongoing basis for a range of factors including population demographics, relative health needs and remote and rural factors. We will continue to assess the need for a more detailed review of the formula, in line with developments in National Care Service funding and Integration reform.

Public Health Scotland review the calculations each year, which informs the geographical allocation of the NHS budget, ensuring resources are distributed fairly. The Scottish Government is not involved in the calculation of the target values. However, we use the formula to ensure appropriate allocation of resource. In 2024-25, we will provide an additional £31.1 million in parity funding, ensuring that all Boards remain within 0.6% of their target.

Work to determine how the review should be taken forward is underway, with an initial meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) having taken place to consider the next steps to determine scope and timing of the review.

Please note that the main driver of the NRAC formula is the population size of each area for the target year and as such each run incorporates the most up-to-date population information available. This includes the latest population estimates (including census data) and sub-national projections published by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to any NHS boards that choose to outsource health services to the private or voluntary sectors or to charity organisations.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

The Scottish Government remains committed to keeping the NHS true to its founding principles – publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need.

Health Boards might arrange treatment for some patients outwith NHSScotland for clinical reasons in exceptional circumstances. In all patient cases, the originating Health Board retains responsibility for the funding, consultation, diagnosis and treatment of their patients.

Guidance on establishing the responsible commissioner has been issued to NHS Boards from the Scottish Government to ensure services are always provided in the best interests of the patient: https://www.publications.scot.nhs.uk/files/cel2013-06.pdf .

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the national authority for the development of evidence-based advice, guidance and standards for health and care professionals. All Independent Healthcare Service providers, are required to register with HIS who regulate such services in Scotland. It is a matter for HIS to detail specific guidance available, however more information is set out on their website: https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/inspections-reviews-and-regulation/regulation-of-independent-healthcare/ .

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to consider self-referral routes within primary care to services that currently require prior GP referral.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

The Primary Care Multi-Disciplinary team may include local physiotherapy services, community mental health services and community links worker services. These services can often be seen safely and effectively without a prior GP referral.

Through our Phased Investment Programme, which will strengthen the evidence base on the national context for implementation of primary care multidisciplinary teams, we will consider any existing barriers to effective multidisciplinary team working, including any barriers regarding patient pathways to services.