Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions has he had with the Chancellor of Exchequer on the adequacy of current levels of financial support for the prevention of women’s self-harm in prisons.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We recognise that the level of self-harm in the women’s estate is too high and are determined to reduce this. A Women’s Self-Harm Task Force was set up in April 2020 in response to our increasing concerns about the level of self-harm in the Women’s estate. We know that many of the drivers (risks and triggers) and protective factors linked to women’s risk of self-harm in prisons have been impacted by Covid-19 and the restricted regimes that have been put in place to control the spread of infection.
The Task Force has led work to introduce a number of specific interventions to counteract the impact of Covid-19 on self-harm in the Women’s estate. This work has seen the introduction of bespoke well-being checks, increased credit to enable phone calls and increased access to Purple Visits (video calls with family and friends).
We have prioritised the roll out of the revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) multi-disciplinary case management system used in prisons to support people at risk of suicide and self-harm. We will also be implementing the Offender Management in Custody model in the female estate in April. This will provide each woman in the female estate with a dedicated key worker who will be able to better support them and identify concerns at an early stage so that women can receive the right support at the right time.
We have also produced a range of products to support Governors in devising and implementing local safety and welfare plans designed to mitigate risks and promote wellbeing. We have developed new guidance for staff on understanding and supporting someone who is self-harming. We continue to make the Samaritans phone service available and are working with the Samaritans to ensure that the Listener peer support scheme continues to function effectively wherever possible.
There has been further investment to support the wellbeing of women offenders in custody, including investment into increased phone credit for women and bespoke well-being checks. Further work has also been done to increase the number of video calls that prisoners have with family and friends.
Crucially, we have also invested £5m in alternatives to prison, including new women’s centres which help people address issues such as alcohol or drug addiction which leads them to crime.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists Self Harm and Suicide in Adults, published in July, what steps they are taking to address any shortcomings in the way suicide risk assessments are conducted.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health has issued extensive guidance on the correct use of risk assessment tools. This guidance makes it clear to trusts that patient management plans should be based on a wider assessment of the individual and their circumstances.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is currently reviewing its guidance on the management of self-harm with the intention to publish updated guidance in May 2022. This will ensure that guidance for trusts on risk assessment and safety planning is based on the most up-to-date evidence.
Funding has also been provided through the NHS Long-Term Plan specifically to support suicide prevention planning and ensure that every local authority has in place a multi-agency suicide prevention plan.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
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 (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) stakeholder groups on trends in the level of suicide among elderly people.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly engages with colleagues across Government on mental health and suicide prevention and meets regularly with suicide and self-harm prevention stakeholders, including meetings of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of commissioning research to improve understanding of how to support people who self-harm without intending to take their own lives.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
In 2017, we expanded the scope of the national suicide prevention strategy to include addressing self-harm as an issue in its own right, and we have funded the Multicentre Study of Self-harm – the most in-depth analysis and monitoring of self-harming trends in England.
The aim of the Multicentre Study’s work is to conduct a series of related studies on the epidemiology, causes, clinical management, outcome and prevention of self-harm.
The cross-Government Suicide Prevention Workplan includes a commitment to establish a wider mental health research programme to inform our thinking in many of the areas that may impact suicide and self-harm prevention. We continue to provide funding for research projects through the National Institute for Health Research including for suicide and self-harm prevention.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have died by suicide while on remand in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We publish this information as part of the Safety in Custody statistics available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-september-2019
Please see the number of self-inflicted deaths of those on remand in each of the last five years below:
2019 – 23
2018 – 27
2017 – 21
2016 – 33
2015 – 36
These figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges numbers may change from time to time.
Every death in custody is a tragedy. We do all we can to prevent prisoners taking their own lives.
We have rolled out revised and improved “Introduction to Suicide and Self-harm Prevention” training for new and existing staff. Over 24,000 staff have received part training and over 12,000 have received training in all six modules.
We have increased the level of support for prisons to help staff implement and monitor any necessary changes and we continue to support prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm through the multi-disciplinary Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 the Secretary of State for Education on the number of suicides involving (a) Secondary School, (b) Further Education and (c) Higher Education students; what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the incidence of suicides in education settings; and what steps his Department is taking on suicide prevention in education settings.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Departmental officials are in regular contact with counterparts at the Department for Education.
We have made no assessment of the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on incidences of suicides in educational settings. To help us get access to quicker data on suicide numbers, Public Health England is piloting a national surveillance system to monitor suspected suicide and self-harm, by collecting near real-time data from local systems. This will allow us to identify patters of risk and inform national and local responses. In November, the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health research group published a report which used real-time data to compare the average number of suicides pre- and -post-lockdown. The researchers found no evidence of a significant rise in suicides post-lockdown in a population of nine million people. This does not identify which suspected suicides took place in an educational setting.
We remain committed to supporting children and young people’s mental health and implementing the core proposals of our Green Paper on improving children and young people’s mental health provision. Our £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme is providing schools and colleges with the knowledge and access to resources they need to support children and young people, teachers and parents.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people who have died by suicide during the covid-19 outbreak; and what steps his Department is taking on suicide prevention.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We do not yet have robust data to say what effect, if any, the COVID-19 pandemic has had on suicide rates. Public Health England is currently piloting the development of a national surveillance system to monitor suspected suicide and self-harm, by collecting in near real time data from local systems which can be used to identify patterns of risk and causal factors, to inform national and local responses.
We are nevertheless taking action to support people’s mental health and prevent suicides and self-harm. All National Health Service mental health providers have established 24 hours a day seven days a week urgent mental health helplines and we have announced £10.2 million of additional funding to support mental health charities, including Samaritans and Campaign Against Living Miserably.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's guidance to schools on supporting students affected by self-harm; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on trends in the incidence of self-harm among students.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Department for Education keeps its guidance to schools under review, including the statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance that all schools must have regard to. Amongst other things, it sets out the role all staff have to play to protect children. This includes being aware of the indicators, which may signal that children are at risk from, or are involved with serious violent crime. These may include signs of self-harm or a significant change in wellbeing. Staff should be aware of the associated risks and understand the measures in place to manage these. This also includes identifying where mental health concerns are also safeguarding concerns, and making appropriate referrals into early help support services and statutory support services as appropriate.
KCSIE was strengthened on 1 September 2020 and includes additional information for school staff to help them support children with their mental health.
The Department for Education works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on children’s mental health and safeguarding issues, and to understand the impact of COVID-19. Emerging evidence on self-harm is included in the children and young people section of the COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing surveillance report, which was published on 8 September 2020. The report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-mental-health-and-wellbeing-surveillance-report/7-children-and-young-people.
DHSC expanded the scope of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy in 2017 to include addressing self-harm as an issue in its own right. They fund the Multicentre Study of Self-harm, which is the most in-depth analysis and monitoring of self-harming trends in England.
Children’s wellbeing and mental health is a central part of the Department for Education’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak and we have taken action to ensure schools and colleges are equipped to support children and young people.
We have worked hard to ensure that all pupils and learners were able to return to a full high-quality education programme in September. Our £1 billion COVID-19 catch-up package, with £650 million shared across schools over the 2020-21 academic year, is supporting education settings to put the right catch-up and pastoral support in place. We are also investing £8 million in the new Wellbeing for Education Return programme which is funding expert advisers who will be able to train and support schools and colleges in every area of England and can make links to available local authority provision.
To increase support further in the long term, we remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with the DHSC and NHS England. This includes introducing new mental health support teams linked to schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.
The NHS Long Term Plan also commits to developing integrated models of primary and community care to support people with complex needs, including self-harming.
From the 2019-20 financial year, we are investing £57 million in suicide prevention through the NHS Long Term Plan. This will see investment in all areas of the country by the 2023-24 financial year to support local suicide prevention plans and establish suicide bereavement support services. We have ensured that the suicide prevention funding for local areas includes addressing self-harm as a priority focus.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is any disparity in the rate of suicide between different (1) ethnic groups, and (2) genders within those groups, in England; and what plans they have to address any such disparity in the implementation of the suicide prevention strategy for England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We do not currently have official data on suicide rates broken down by ethnicity. We are exploring ways to improve the quality and timeliness of suicide and self-harm data, including for ethnic groups, to allow national and local partners to monitor rates, identify trends and develop effective prevention plans.
Preventing suicide in England: Fourth progress report of the cross government outcomes strategy to save lives, published in 2019, recognises that there are certain groups, including the black, Asian and minority ethnic community, with specific needs and characteristics that may expose them to more risk factors for suicide. We expect local agencies to work together to ensure that their plans are tailored to meet the needs of these groups.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made the suicide rate for (a) Preston (b) Lancashire and (c) England between April 2020 to July 2020 with the same period in each of the last 2 years.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We have not made such an assessment. We do not yet have robust data to say what effect, if any, the COVID-19 pandemic has had on suicide rates.
We are nevertheless taking action to support people’s mental health and prevent suicides and self-harm. All National Health Service mental health providers have established 24 hours a day, seven days a week mental health crisis lines, and we have announced £9.2 million of additional funding to support mental health charities, including Samaritans and CALM.
Every local authority has a multi-agency suicide prevention plan in place. The expectation is that agencies will work together to ensure plans address the impacts of COVID-19 on specific groups.
We are working with the NHS and others to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts of COVID-19 and plan for how to support the public’s mental health and wellbeing throughout the ‘recovery’ phase.