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Written Question
Mental Health Services
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of support available to adults with complex mental health needs.

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

Through the NHS Long Term plan, the Government is providing record levels of investment, and increasing the mental health workforce, to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England. Almost £16 billion was invested into mental health in 2022/23, enabling 3.6 million people to be in contact with mental health services.

As part of this, we’re set to reach nearly £1 billion of additional funding invested by 2023/24, to transform community mental health services. This is the largest area of investment within the NHS Long Term Plan for mental health, aiming to support more people with the care that is most appropriate for their needs, and that is integrated between primary and community mental health services. Over the last full financial year, 2022/23, 288,000 adults and older adults with severe mental illness were able to access mental health support through these new models.

The safety and care of mental health patients is of paramount importance. Those with complex mental health needs in an inpatient mental health facility deserve to receive safe, high-quality care, and to be treated with dignity and respect.

NHS England has established a Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Inpatient Quality Transformation Programme. This programme is working to support cultural change and a new model of care for the future, across all NHS-funded mental health, learning disability, and autism inpatient settings.

The ambition is to increasingly shift mental healthcare towards early intervention and prevention, with treatment primarily delivered in the community. This includes increasing the number of personalised care roles, such as peer support workers, with expansion focused on mental health services where need is greatest.


Written Question
Older People: Health
Monday 11th March 2024

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 her Department has taken recent steps to commission research into (a) reducing ill health and (b) retaining (i) physical function and (ii) mental capacity by older people.

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

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR’s Healthy Ageing Policy Research Unit, which started in January 2024, undertakes research related to the health and wellbeing of older adults. This includes ongoing research to examine effective interventions that prevent or postpone the development of physical or mental disability related to long-term conditions.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
Monday 19th February 2024

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 is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to target support to people with adverse childhood experiences to prevent alcohol harm.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Evidence suggests that adverse childhood experiences are often intergenerational, and while people with adverse childhood experiences are more likely to have grown up in a household where one or both parents were alcohol dependent compared to the general population, their children are also more likely to develop alcohol problems as they get older.

This is why we are investing in vital services to be at the heart of local offers for families. Not only do these services play a pivotal role in keeping more children safe from adverse experiences, with stable loving relationships, they can also help overcome multiple, complex problems within families before they escalate.

We have committed to £1 billion of funding for programmes to improve early help support. This includes around £300 million to fund a new three-year Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. This programme, now in its second year, is delivering a step-change in outcomes for babies, children, parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England with high deprivation. This funding also includes an additional £695 million for the Supporting Families programme, which builds the resilience of vulnerable families by providing effective support for all their underlying and interconnected problems, such as addressing alcohol harms and other adverse childhood experiences.

We are investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024, compared to 2018/19, to expand and transform mental health services in England so that two million more people, including those with adverse childhood experiences, can get the mental health support that they need. We are also rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges across England. The Government is also investing an extra £532 million for local authorities to improve alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services through Drug Strategy funding through to 2024/25. Local authorities are encouraged to develop programmes which provide tailored support to families affected by parental alcohol and drug use with this funding.


Written Question
Mental Illness
Friday 15th December 2023

Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what specialist service provision the NHS provides for people with (a) psychosis and schizophrenia, (b) eating disorders and (c) bipolar.

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

The NHS Long Term Plan committed £1 billion of extra funding per year to transform and expand community mental health services. By the end of 2023/24, it is expected that 370,000 adults and older adults with severe mental health problems will be supported within newly transformed models of care in line with the Community Mental Health Framework.

The Community Mental Health Framework is applicable to people irrespective of their diagnosis, aiming to reorganise community mental health services to provide comprehensive holistic care and treatment to give them greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities.

As part of this new integrated offer, systems are supported to develop specialist services for adult eating disorders and early intervention for psychosis, while the expansion of psychological therapies includes extending the specific treatments people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Therefore, through expansion of community-based services, adults with severe mental health problems will be able to access treatment earlier, and closer to home, leading to better outcomes for them and their families.


Written Question
Borderline Personality Disorder: Health Services
Tuesday 12th September 2023

Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)

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 help support people living with borderline personality disorder.

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

It is for individual integrated care boards to commission mental health services, including those for people with borderline personality disorder, to meet the needs of their local population.

We are investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England by March 2024. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing almost £1 billion of this extra funding in integrated community mental health support for people with serious mental illnesses. This will give an additional 370,000 adults and older adults greater choice and control over their care.


Written Question
Eating Disorders: Health Services
Monday 17th July 2023

Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the commissioning of integrated services for eating disorders for (1) children and young people, and (2) adults.

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

NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including to increase the focus on early identification and intervention. Updated guidance will highlight the importance of improved integration between dedicated community eating disorder services, wider children and young people's mental health services, schools, colleges and primary care to improve awareness, provide expert advice and improve support for children and young people presenting with problems with eating, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.

Improving adult eating disorder (AED) services is a key priority for NHS England and a fundamental part of our LTP commitment to expand and improve mental health services.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out an ambition to give 370,000 adults and older adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities by 2023/24. This includes creating integrated pathways of care across primary care, mental health services, VCS organisations, and social care, for people with severe mental illness. This programme will deliver just under £1 billion of additional funding per year for transforming community mental health by 2023/24.

Since April 2021 all integrated care systems (ICSs) have received fair-share funding to transform their community mental health services, including eating disorders, with the expectation that all ICS will have transformed AED services in place by 2023/24.


Written Question
Sexual Offences: Victim Support Schemes
Wednesday 7th June 2023

Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the length of waiting lists for counselling for victims of sexual violence.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The NHS Long Term Plan commits this Government to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024. This will enable an extra two million people, including victims of sexual violence, to be treated by NHS mental health services. In February 2022, NHS England also published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. Which will enable victims of sexual violence to be referred sooner. These give new access and waiting time standards are:

  • For an ‘urgent’ referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within 24 hours from referral, across all ages;
  • For a ‘very urgent’ referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within four hours from referral, for all age groups;
  • Patients referred from Accident and Emergency should be seen face to face within one hour, by mental health liaison or children and young people’s equivalent service;
  • Children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral; and
  • Adults and older adults presenting to community-based mental health services should start to receive help within four weeks from referral.

Written Question
Ageing: Departmental Coordination
Tuesday 6th June 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the elements surrounding ageing that fall outside of the remit of the Department of Health and Social Care; and what steps they are taking, together with other government departments, to co-ordinate the provision of support for the multi-dimensional aspects of ageing.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

While the work required to protect our older generation stretches across the whole of Government, individual departments take responsibility for the delivery of relevant policies within their jurisdictions. The Department of Health and Social Care has jurisdiction over policy levers that relate to the physical and mental health of the older generation. The Department of Work and Pensions also has a strong role to play in its allocation of pensions and benefits. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has a taskforce that aims to improve the housing options for older people. Furthermore, the Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub leads on the Equality Act 2010, which provides strong protection from age discrimination in a variety of settings.


Written Question
Health Services: Older People
Monday 5th June 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) prevent ill health, and (2) promote staying healthy, among older people.

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

We work to support the health needs of, and prevent ill health in, older people through a variety of action. This includes the NHS Health Check, which detects people at risk of developing cardiovascular disease in later life, and an ambitious prevention agenda to tackle the most common preventable diseases among older people. For example, encouraging people in mid-life to stop smoking, reduce their alcohol consumption and improve their diet to help reduce the risk of developing dementia, disability and frailty in later life.

The Government will also publish a Major Conditions Strategy which will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. The Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England including cancers, cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill health and musculoskeletal conditions. An interim report will be published in the summer.


Written Question
Health Services: Older People
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the joint statement made by various organisations on 21 March which called for a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing for England; and what plans they have to meet with representatives of the relevant organisations.

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

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment as the needs of older people and healthy ageing are covered by the NHS Health Check and an ambitious prevention agenda to reduce individuals’ risk of ill health later in life.

We continue to engage a wide range of organisations on healthy ageing and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is taking targeted actions to tackle the most common preventable diseases, improving access and uptake of prevention services, and embedding prevention across health and care. For example, encouraging people in mid-life to stop smoking, reduce their alcohol consumption and improve their diet to help reduce the risk of developing dementia, disability and frailty in later life.

Finally, the Government recently announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy which will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. The Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England: cancers; cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diabetes; chronic respiratory diseases; dementia; mental ill health; and musculoskeletal conditions. An interim report will be published in the summer.