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Written Question
Pre-school Education and Primary Education: Down's Syndrome
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) early years learning and (b) primary education for children with Down's Syndrome.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is committed to improving the life outcomes and opportunities for children with Down syndrome, including through follow-up to the Down Syndrome Act 2022. From 2025, the department will begin collecting data on the numbers of children and young people with Down syndrome in schools and colleges. This will help inform the planning locally of long term services.

The special educational needs and disability (SEND) system in education settings provides support for all children with SEND. The system focuses on removing barriers to education and putting the right support in place to meet need, regardless of the specific condition a child may have. The department set out its mission for more children and young people with SEND to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings in the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan in March 2023. The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan.

In the Improvement Plan, the department confirmed that frontline professionals, such as teachers and early years practitioners, would be equipped with the skills and expertise to make best use of provision and to identify needs early, accurately and consistently. The department is developing a suite of practitioner standards to help early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, prioritising areas such as speech and language development. The department is funding up to 7,000 early years staff to gain an accredited Level 3 early years special educational needs co-ordinator qualification.

Additionally, the department is investing £2.6 billion in new specialist places to increase the number of places for those children who need specialist support in mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision. These developments will help children with Down syndrome in early years settings and primary schools reach their full potential.

Specifically on early years learning, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow, including learning and development requirements. The EYFS includes specific requirements for supporting children with SEND, including those with Down syndrome. All early years providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard to the SEND Code of Practice.


Written Question
Gastrointestinal Cancer: Diagnosis
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the rate of early diagnosis of (a) bowel and (b) bowel-related cancers.

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

The Department is taking steps to improve the rate of early diagnosis for all cancers, including bowel and bowel-related cancers, and is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan, for tackling the COVID-19 related backlogs in elective care. This includes plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment.

NHS England is working to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard, which sets a target of 28 days from urgent referral by a general practitioner or screening programme to patients being told that they have cancer, or that cancer is ruled out. To achieve this target NHS England has: streamlined bowel cancer pathways by implementing faecal immunochemical testing triage for patients in primary and secondary care settings on a suspected cancer pathway; implemented non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations of non-specific symptoms, that can indicate several different cancers; and has opened community diagnostic centres across England, expanding diagnostic capacity and by prioritising this capacity for cancer services.

In 2023 the NHS England’s Help Us Help You campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited, and the screening offer for the bowel screening programme is being gradually extended from age 60 down to 50 years old by 2025, ensuring more people are screened and potentially diagnosed with bowel cancer at the earliest stage.  The National Health Service is also now offering routine preventative bowel cancer screening to thousands of people in England with a genetic condition, Lynch syndrome, that increases their chance of developing bowel cancer and other certain other cancers. This gives the NHS a better chance of finding cancers at a time when they can be more easily and effectively treated.


Written Question
Bowel Cancer
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure equality in bowel cancer outcomes.

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

The National Health Service is taking several steps to improve bowel cancer outcomes for patients across England. The NHS is working towards its Long Term Plan’s ambition of diagnosing 75% of all stageable cancers at stage one and two, by 2028. Achieving this will mean that an additional 55,000 people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.  With progress made on reducing waiting times, cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage more often, with survival rates improving across almost all types of cancer.

In 2023, NHS England’s Help Us Help You campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited, while gradually extending the screening offer from those aged 60 down to 50 years old, ensuring more people are diagnosed with bowel cancer at the earliest stage.

The NHS is also now offering routine preventative bowel cancer screening to thousands of people in England with a genetic condition, Lynch syndrome, that increases their chance of developing bowel cancer and certain other cancers. This gives the NHS a better chance of finding cancers at a time when they can be more easily and effectively treated.

Tackling disparities is important in improving all types of cancer outcomes. The Government is committed to its levelling up mission, to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030 and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035. Our approach will continue to focus on supporting people to live healthier lives, helping the NHS and social care provide the best treatment and care for patients, and tackling health disparities through national and system interventions such as the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities was set up to address health inequalities with a range of interventions, including accelerating prevention programmes, reducing digital exclusion, supporting general practice in deprived communities, and improving health literacy.


Written Question
Down's Syndrome
Monday 18th December 2023

Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what stakeholder engagement she (a) has had and (b) plans to have to develop guidance on the Down Syndrome Act 2022; and whether she plans to engage stakeholder groups representing other genetic conditions with features that overlap with those in Down syndrome.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We launched a National Call for Evidence in July 2022 to inform the development of the Down Syndrome Act Guidance, and this remained open for 16 weeks to ensure as many people as possible were able to contribute their views. As part of this call for evidence we also held in-person stakeholder engagement events, including with stakeholder groups representing other genetic conditions. We intend to publish the findings from the Call for Evidence shortly. More recently, on 20 November, the Department hosted a symposium for Down Syndrome leads within integrated care boards. The symposium included experts in Down Syndrome and people with lived experience.

The Department is establishing an advisory group, which I will oversee, to inform our work on the development of the guidance. We will continue to engage with stakeholder groups representing other genetic conditions. I attended and spoke at the 22q11 Syndrome All Party Parliamentary Group reception this month, hosted by the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan.


Written Question
Schools: Census
Wednesday 6th December 2023

Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will add Down syndrome as a separate data item on the school census.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is committed to improving the support in education for children and young people with Down syndrome, particularly given the passage of the Down Syndrome Act 2022, which My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State supported on behalf of the Government in her previous role in the Department for Health and Social Care. The Secretary of State for Education has also been speaking with representatives of Down syndrome organisations about how the department can best deliver on this commitment through the measures in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan. Discussions have included how the department best collects and uses data, and whether to collect data on the number of pupils with Down syndrome through the School Census. The department hopes to confirm the decision shortly.


Written Question
Energy: Prices
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to help ensure that people with Rett Syndrome are able to heat their homes to a safe temperature.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government is continuing to provide targeted support for vulnerable households as prices come down. In 2023-24 the Government is already providing additional cost of living payments of up to £900 to households on means-tested benefits, £300 to pensioner households, and £150 to those on eligible disability benefits.

This is alongside existing and ongoing energy bills support for the most vulnerable that includes the:

  • Warm Home Discount providing a £150 rebate on electricity bills for up to three million households in most need this winter;
  • Winter Fuel Payment, worth between £250 - £600;
  • Cold Weather Payment, a £25 payment for vulnerable households on qualifying benefits, is also available to help with the cost of bills when the weather is or expected to be unusually cold.

Written Question
Down Syndrome Act 2022
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish guidance on the Down Syndrome Act 2022.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We are using the data from Down Syndrome Act call for evidence to develop the guidance, required under the Down Syndrome Act 2022, for relevant authorities on how they should meet the needs of people with Down syndrome.

We will be publishing a report on the call for evidence findings shortly. This report will include a detailed breakdown of respondents and information about what capacity individuals or organisations were responding in, and the area they work in, such as healthcare, social care, or local government.

We expect to issue the draft Down Syndrome Act guidance for consultation as soon as possible in the new year, and the guidance will be published at the earliest opportunity following the public consultation.


Written Question
Down Syndrome Act 2022
Monday 24th July 2023

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will respond to the consultation entitled Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance: call for evidence which closed on 8 November 2022; and if he will publish (a) the complete set of responses to the call for evidence and (b) a breakdown of respondents by profession.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We are undertaking analysis of the responses received from the Down Syndrome Act guidance call for evidence to inform the draft guidance and will issue a report after the summer Parliamentary recess. This report will include a detailed breakdown of respondents and information about what capacity individuals or organisations were responding in, and the area they work in, such as healthcare, social care or local Government.

The draft Down Syndrome Act guidance will be issued for consultation in due course.


Written Question
Down Syndrome Act 2022
Monday 24th July 2023

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) clinicians and (b) other professionals responded to his Department's call for evidence on Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We are undertaking analysis of the responses received from the Down Syndrome Act guidance call for evidence to inform the draft guidance and will issue a report after the summer Parliamentary recess. This report will include a detailed breakdown of respondents and information about what capacity individuals or organisations were responding in, and the area they work in, such as healthcare, social care or local Government.

The draft Down Syndrome Act guidance will be issued for consultation in due course.


Written Question
Down Syndrome Act 2022
Monday 24th July 2023

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timetable is for publishing the (a) Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance and (b) consultation response to the call for evidence on the Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We are undertaking analysis of the responses received from the Down Syndrome Act guidance call for evidence to inform the draft guidance and will issue a report after the summer Parliamentary recess. This report will include a detailed breakdown of respondents and information about what capacity individuals or organisations were responding in, and the area they work in, such as healthcare, social care or local Government.

The draft Down Syndrome Act guidance will be issued for consultation in due course.