Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to (a) patients and (b) their families who have to relocate following the closure of the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the concerns of those who have benefitted from the support of the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People. We are committed to ensuring that disabled people have equitable, effective, and responsive access to health and care services that meet their needs.
Adult social care services are provided through a largely outsourced market of commercial organisations and charities. Ensuring good management of the market and securing continuity of care in the event of market exit due to business failure is the responsibility of local authorities.
Health and care systems and providers should work together to ensure that efforts to discharge individuals from hospital into social care are joined up and make best use of available resources, in line with the duty to cooperate set out in Section 82 of the NHS Act 2006.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a temporary duty to ensure that individuals continue to receive the services they need, including National Health Service patients receiving adult social care, if their care provider is no longer able to deliver those services. The Care Act Statutory Guidance provides guidance on managing provider failure and other service interruptions.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve managerial support for GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regarding the oversight of general practices (GPs), GPs are independent businesses, providing primary care services based on a National Health Service GP Contract to their local populations. Most commonly, GPs are run by GP partners who, alongside other GPs and healthcare staff, are responsible for running their own practice.
NHS England has delegated its responsibilities for the direct commissioning of primary care services, for instance primary medical, dental, ophthalmic, and community pharmacy services, to integrated care boards (ICBs).
The responsibilities delegated are set out in the standard delegation agreement between NHS England and each ICB. This includes contractual management and supporting the improvement and transformation of services. Further information on the delegation agreement is available at the following link:
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole and reflects this government’s commitment to improve support for general practice and ease pressure on general practitioners.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has received complaints on the use of automated GP booking systems leading to (a) administrative and (b) clinical errors in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All digital tools used in primary care must meet minimum functionality standards set by NHS England, ensuring a consistent and high-quality user experience. NHS England provides commercial and procurement support to guarantee that all digital solutions comply with nationally specified clinical safety and technical standards
Online consultation tools offer patients an option to contact their general practice (GP) digitally, allowing them to manage appointments, view and request repeat prescriptions, and register electronically with GP surgeries. They are specifically designed to simplify administrative processes
Experience suggests that extending online access provides significant benefits to both patients and practices. With more patients using online options, phone lines are less busy, which increases availability for those who need additional help or more urgent care
It remains the responsibility of the practice and clinicians to ensure that all patient requests are dealt with appropriately, and that urgent cases are identified and managed safely.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) efficiency and (b) clinical safety of automated online systems for managing GP appointment requests.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All digital tools used in primary care must meet minimum functionality standards set by NHS England, ensuring a consistent and high-quality user experience. NHS England provides commercial and procurement support to guarantee that all digital solutions comply with nationally specified clinical safety and technical standards
Online consultation tools offer patients an option to contact their general practice (GP) digitally, allowing them to manage appointments, view and request repeat prescriptions, and register electronically with GP surgeries. They are specifically designed to simplify administrative processes
Experience suggests that extending online access provides significant benefits to both patients and practices. With more patients using online options, phone lines are less busy, which increases availability for those who need additional help or more urgent care
It remains the responsibility of the practice and clinicians to ensure that all patient requests are dealt with appropriately, and that urgent cases are identified and managed safely.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the identification of young carers across other health services in the context of plans to change the Mental Health Act Code of Practice.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities must take reasonable steps to identify young carers in their area and assess their needs. To support local authorities in their child protection duties, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, strengthens this by introducing a duty on safeguarding partners to enhance multi-agency working with children and families.
Reforms to the Mental Health Act will encourage recording young carers in Advance Choice Documents, providing crucial information for professionals during crises. The Mental Health Bill also ensures carers are actively involved in patients’ statutory care plans, supported by guidance in the revised Mental Health Act Code of Practice.
NHS England is improving young carer identification and support through general practice guidance and better data sharing across health, education, and social care. In partnership with the Department for Education, it is leading a cross-Government project with young carers and voluntary organisations to reduce inequalities and strengthen support pathways.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure the dental workforce is equipped and supported to deliver (a) fluoride varnish and (b) other preventive interventions within neighbourhood health settings.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Neighbourhood Health Service will provide opportunities for dental care professionals to work as part of neighbourhood teams. We have consulted on changes to improve access to, and the quality of, National Health Service dentistry. To support practices to make better use of the skill mix of their team and to improve delivery of fluoride varnish, we have proposed introducing a new course of treatment for children for fluoride varnish to be applied by suitably trained dental nurses. Public consultation closed on 19 August, and the Government will publish a response shortly.
We have also published guidance on how dental health professionals can improve the oral and general health of their patients, including fluoride varnish and other preventative interventions. This is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve working conditions for dental care professionals.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dental care professionals, including dental therapists, dental hygienists, and dental nurses, play a vital role within our dentistry teams and are highly valued members of the workforce.
We recently held a public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, National Health Service dentistry, which will deliver better care and seek to make NHS dentistry a more attractive workplace.
The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response shortly.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with private social care providers on levels of challenges for their staff.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I regularly hold discussions with providers from across the social care sector, including private and voluntary sectors, and with local authority providers. This includes roundtables and site visits.
Department officials also regularly engage with private adult social care providers and sector representatives to understand the challenges faced by their workforce.
In order to gain a full understanding of issues affecting the workforce, the Department commissioned ‘The Adult Social Care workforce and their work-related quality of life survey’ which provides detailed evidence on the issues most affecting staff.
The full survey report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when details of further NHS dental contract reforms are planned to be published; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing more flexible commissioning models to support mixed dental practices to expand access to care and deliver more preventive services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government's response to the recent consultation on National Health Service dental contract reforms will be published shortly.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability.
Commissioners can use flexible commissioning where they identify a need that cannot be met effectively through the provision of mandatory services. In doing so, they must satisfy themselves that these arrangements are appropriate and offer good value for money.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the incidence of (a) genetic and (b) congenital disorders associated with parental consanguinity in England and Wales since 1997; if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of incidence on public health; and if he will publish that assessment.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England is directed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to collect data and report on the prevalence of cancer, and congenital and rare conditions in England, and this includes genomic data where available. NDRS publishes official national statistics on the birth prevalence of congenital conditions in England, presented by geographical region and stratified by the presence or absence of a known genomic cause. Parental consanguinity is a data item within the NDRS congenital conditions dataset, but reporting remains incomplete across many data providers. As a result, the data is insufficient to support routine reporting on the birth prevalence of congenital conditions in consanguineous families. NDRS is working with hospital trusts to continually improve the quality and completeness of data. Other relevant initiatives include the Born in Bradford study, which provides valuable insights into congenital conditions and associated risk factors, including consanguinity, in a defined population. Further information on the NDRS is available at the following link: