Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of parenting programmes on (a) levels of expenditure associated with (i) child and adult mental health and (ii) youth anti-social behaviour and (b) the proportion of parents able to return to the workplace as a result of a reduction in school refusal rates.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is clear that parents should do everything they can to ensure that their child is in school every day. Regular school attendance is vital for children’s attainment, mental wellbeing and long-term development. It is crucial that the department has a system of support in place to ensure every child attends school every day, ready to learn and thrive.
The government’s ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance, which will become statutory ahead of the next school year, includes a core set of functions that local authority attendance support staff, whether titled education welfare officers, attendance officers or early help practitioners, are expected to provide free of charge to all schools and funded centrally through the Central Schools Service Block and Supporting Families Grant. Some early adopters have reported benefits from integrating attendance into other services, and providing better, more joined up whole family support, that has the potential to reduce demand for higher cost crisis services over time.
The department’s attendance mentors pilot sees mentors supporting a group of persistently absent pupils and their families, on a one-to-one basis, to help identify and address their barriers to education. The department has had positive feedback from parents, pupils and schools who have engaged with the attendance mentors programme and have started to see some promising impact data. The department has recently announced an additional investment of £15 million to expand mentoring into ten new areas over the next three years.
The government’s Supporting Families programme continues to work with families where attendance issues are a significant concern. ‘Getting a good education’ is a headline indicator in the national Supporting Families Outcomes Framework, which requires sustained good attendance for all children in the family, across two consecutive school terms. It is important that those identifying attendance issues begin to explore and identify any issues which may be behind the attendance problems, including any needs and circumstances in the wider family as part of Early Help Assessment processes.
The department’s reforms are starting to make a difference. There were 440,000 fewer pupils persistently absent or not attending in 2022/23 than in the year before. Overall absence during the 2023/24 autumn term was 6.8%, down from 7.5% in the 2022/23 autumn term.
Alongside this, the department is currently considering options for widening access to parenting support through family hubs and is undertaking assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes, as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future fiscal events, the department will consider the downstream economic impacts of parenting programmes.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough)
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 access to mental health services in Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are expanding and transforming National Health Service mental health care in England, including in the Wellingborough constituency. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, NHS spending on mental health has increased by £4.7 billion in cash terms, as compared to the target of £3.4 billion set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. All integrated care boards are also on track to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2023/24, including the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board.
This has enabled 3.6 million people to access mental health support in 2022/23, a 10% increase from 2021/22. To support this expansion, our aim is to grow the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff by spring 2024. In September 2023, there were over 146,000 full time equivalents in the mental health workforce. This is over 10,300, or 7.6%, more than September 2022.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies on preventing maternal deaths of MBRRACE-UK's report entitled Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care, published in October 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department is committed to reducing maternal mortality and improving outcomes for mothers and is working to fully understand why a recent increase in the maternal death rate has been reported, including considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several initiatives have already been introduced across the National Health Service to improve maternity safety as part of NHS England’s Three Year Delivery Plan for maternity and neonatal services, which is backed by £186 million a year from April.
Initiatives include the establishment of 14 maternal medicine networks which provide pregnant women who have medical conditions with specialist advice and support, and the publishing of local Equity and Equality Action Plans, which are tailored to meet the needs of that area. The Department also expects all 42 integrated care systems to have a Maternal Mental Health Service operational by the end of March 2024, which provide psychological therapy for women experiencing mental health difficulties related to their maternity experience.
On top of this, as announced at Spring Budget, the Government and NHS England are investing almost £35 million from 2024/25 to 2026/27 to further improve maternity safety across England, with specialist training for staff, additional numbers of midwives and support to ensure maternity services listen to and act on women’s experiences to improve care.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of training given to staff on assessing when to stop IUD insertions if the patient feels pain or discomfort.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual employers providing contraception services are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role.
The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of respective independent statutory regulatory bodies, who set the outcome standards expected and approve courses. It is the responsibility of higher education and training institutions to write and teach a programme that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff are employed at the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the numbers of births delivered at birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre, in each of the last five years:
Year | Births delivered |
2018/19 | 68 |
2019/20 | 73 |
2020/21 | 18 |
2021/22 | 45 |
2022/23 | 34 |
Edgware Birth Centre is a standalone birth centre which is staffed by midwifery teams employed by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust who work across a number of locations. Because of this it is difficult to determine the cost for the centre separately. The centre is the base for three teams that work across the maternity services provided by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. The staff are deployed across a number of birth settings, including home births, Edgware Birth Centre, and Barnet Hospital. Staff working at the centre also deliver antenatal and postnatal clinics.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual cost to the public purse is of the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the numbers of births delivered at birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre, in each of the last five years:
Year | Births delivered |
2018/19 | 68 |
2019/20 | 73 |
2020/21 | 18 |
2021/22 | 45 |
2022/23 | 34 |
Edgware Birth Centre is a standalone birth centre which is staffed by midwifery teams employed by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust who work across a number of locations. Because of this it is difficult to determine the cost for the centre separately. The centre is the base for three teams that work across the maternity services provided by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. The staff are deployed across a number of birth settings, including home births, Edgware Birth Centre, and Barnet Hospital. Staff working at the centre also deliver antenatal and postnatal clinics.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many births were delivered at the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the numbers of births delivered at birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre, in each of the last five years:
Year | Births delivered |
2018/19 | 68 |
2019/20 | 73 |
2020/21 | 18 |
2021/22 | 45 |
2022/23 | 34 |
Edgware Birth Centre is a standalone birth centre which is staffed by midwifery teams employed by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust who work across a number of locations. Because of this it is difficult to determine the cost for the centre separately. The centre is the base for three teams that work across the maternity services provided by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. The staff are deployed across a number of birth settings, including home births, Edgware Birth Centre, and Barnet Hospital. Staff working at the centre also deliver antenatal and postnatal clinics.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the levels of security in community pharmacies to ensure (a) staff and (b) public safety.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an estimate of the amount of medication that has been stolen from community pharmacies in the last year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has taken recent steps to ensure that there is increased security for medicines within community pharmacies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.