Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Royal National Institute of Blind People's research entitled Provision under pressure: Gaps in Educational Support for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment in England (2023), published in February 2024; and what steps her Department (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to ensure that children and young people with vision impairment have equitable access to education.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s ambition is that all children and young people receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan outlines the government’s mission to establish a single, national SEND and AP system, with the proposal to develop national standards a fundamental foundation for this.
This new single national system will set standards on what support should be made available in mainstream settings, including for children with vision impairment. The National Standards will outline the types of special educational provision that should be available, who is responsible for delivering that support, and clarify expectations on mainstream settings and local services. To inform national standards, the department is engaging with stakeholders across education, health and social care, as well as children, young people and their families, this includes members of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
The department is committed to ensuring a steady supply of teachers of children with vision impairment in both specialist and mainstream settings. To teach a class of pupils with vision impairments, a teacher is required to hold the relevant mandatory qualification for sensory impairment (MQSI). There are currently six providers of the MQSI, with a seventh from September 2024. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is developing a new occupational standard for teachers of sensory impairment, expected to be available from September 2025. Children and young people with special educational needs have more access to assistive technology following investment in remote education and accessibility features, which can reduce or remove barriers to learning.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to develop waiting time targets for receiving treatment in the eight new children and young people's gender services regional centres.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to develop tailored waiting time targets for receiving treatment in children and young people's gender services regional centres. NHS England has made significant progress on its overhaul of children’s gender identity services. NHS England closed the Tavistock Gender Clinic last month and opened two new, regional services operating under a fundamentally differing service model earlier this month. A third clinic is set to open in Bristol this Autumn, and NHS England has committed to a further three services by 2026. These new services will increase service capacity and reduce waiting lists.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 whether the NHS workforce plan should be updated by NHS England to reflect the staffing needs of the eight new children and young people's gender services regional centres.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific formal assessment has been made. Gender medicine is a highly specialised field of medicine, and NHS England are actively working to recruit more staff for the new regional children and young people gender identity services. NHS England has also been working closely with other professional bodies to develop tailored training for these professionals. NHS England will commission the required professional training curriculum and competencies framework, not just for staff working in the new gender services, but also for clinicians working in secondary, primary, and community care. It is expected that this will also help to increase the support for children and young people, ensuring they receive a more holistic model of care.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on delivering a mental health support lead within primary and secondary schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has offered all state-funded schools and colleges in England a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. The department continues to deliver on the commitments that it made in the government’s 2018 response to the consultation on 'Transforming children and young people's mental health provision: a green paper' and to deliver on next steps. The government’s response to the consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper.
As at 30 November 2023, 15,100 schools and colleges had taken up this offer and claimed a grant, which represents 63% of the total number of settings that are eligible to apply. Breakdowns of the data, including by setting type, can be found in the department’s transparency data release which has been updated annually since the programme started and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision.
A list of schools and colleges receiving a senior mental health lead training grant is also published and updated throughout the year, which can be found here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F65b0cb50160765001118f741%2FSenior_mental_health_lead_training_January_2024_Update.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps she has taken to help reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We want to ensure that children and young people get the mental health support they need, including in the Stockport constituency, and overall spending on mental health has increased by more than £4.7 billion in cash terms since 2018/19. This has enabled an expansion of child and young people's mental health services. As of January 2024, the latest data from NHS Digital shows there were 758,485 children and young people aged under 18 years old, supported through National Health Service funded mental health services with at least one contact.
We have introduced two waiting-time standards for children and young people. The first is for 95% of children, up to 19 years old, with eating disorders to receive treatment within one week for urgent cases, and four weeks for routine cases. The second is for 50% of patients of all ages experiencing a first episode of psychosis to receive treatment within two weeks of referral.
NHS England is developing a new waiting time measure for children and their families and carers to start to receive community-based mental health care within four weeks from referral. NHS England began publishing this new data in 2023 to improve transparency and drive local accountability.
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 support she is providing for young people with eating disorders in Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2016, investment in children and young people's community eating disorder services has risen every year, with an extra £54 million per year as of 2023/24. This extra funding continues to enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country.
NHS England continues to work with system leaders and regions, including Wellingborough, and asks that areas prioritise service delivery and investment to meet the needs of these vulnerable young people, to help ensure funding flows to these services as intended. To support this, NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including increasing the focus on early identification and intervention.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 14706 on Cancer: Young People, whether the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce will study the impact of cancer treatment on young people's (a) cognitive function and (b) ability to learn effectively.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce announced on 6 February 2024 that it will explore how we can improve outcomes for children and young people with cancer. It will draw on expertise from charities, clinicians, academia, and businesses, to set the direction, and define its priorities going forward.
It is important to recognise the support built into National Health Service specifications for children’s cancer. These require children’s cancer services to take a multi-agency approach to support, and address, the wider social, educational, psychological, and emotional needs of the child and their family. This includes providing ready access to a wide range of services and professionals, including educational and rehabilitative support. These services are vital in ensuring that children and families have the support needed, to face the difficult challenges cancer brings.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group report entitled The Children and Young People's Cancer Plan, published on 7 February 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cancer is a priority for the Government and the Department continues to take steps to demonstrate this. The Department is taking steps to better understand the landscape of childhood cancer with experts, aided by Dame Caroline Dinenage MP.
Increasing the diagnosis rates of cancers in children and young people is a priority for the Government. Several organisations, including the Department, are taking steps across England to improve cancer diagnosis services in primary health care settings, supporting general practices (GPs) in referring patients, expanding diagnostic capacity, and enabling more precise diagnosis through technology.
NHS England is working to deliver the ambition it set in its Long-Term Plan to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages one and two by 2028. The Department is working to support GPs in improving referrals for suspected cancer. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance underpinning cancer referrals sets out detailed guidance for GPs on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending very urgent referral, an appointment within 48 hours, for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms including any unexplained lump, bruising or bleeding, neurological symptoms or bone pain. For many of these symptoms, GPs now have direct access to request diagnostic tests including X-ray and ultrasound.
Childhood, young people’s and young adults’ cancers are included within the Department’s work on developing a Major Conditions Strategy. Addressing cancer together with other groups of conditions in a joined-up strategy will allow us to focus on where there are similarities in approach and ensure care is better centered around the patient.
While the Department cannot pre-empt its outcomes or undertake a specific assessment at this stage, the Major Conditions Strategy’s final report will draw on previous work, including submissions from childhood, young people and young adults’ cancer charities and stakeholders in response to our calls for evidence on cancer and on major conditions. The emphasis is on earlier diagnosis, better support to manage conditions, and improved coordination of treatment and care. We are engaging with stakeholders representing babies, children and young people to ensure their views are considered in the development of the strategy.
The Department does not plan to insert any further additions into the strategy development for age appropriate and personalised care. The NHS Long Term Plan states that, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. This is being delivered in line with the NHS Comprehensive Model for Personalised Care, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer and maximise the potential of digital and community-based support.
In addition, the Under 16 Cancer Patient Experience Survey, commissioned by NHS England, is now in its third year and aims to gather feedback from children and young people and their parents/carers on the cancer care and treatment received.
These surveys provide valuable findings, helping the National Health Service to understand what is good about children, young people’s and adults’ cancer care, and identifying areas for improvements. 75% of children aged between eight and 15 years old reported that they were looked after very well for their cancer or tumour by healthcare staff and 89% of parents/carers rated the overall experience of their child's care as eight or more out of 10. The answers are being used to improve children’s cancer care across England. NHS England is working to review and improve play facilities, including working with the Starlight Foundation Charity on improvements to guidance, and surveying all provision to identify areas for improvement. Work is also underway in improving food quality, including nine larger Children’s Hospital’s NHS Trusts currently piloting better food provision for resident parents.
The Government welcomed Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group’s Children and Young People’s Cancer Plan. The Department has not made a formal assessment of the recommendations, given the significant amount of work ongoing across NHS England and the Department. Our priorities include improving early diagnosis, delivering more research, and driving progress in genomic medicine.
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, what steps she is taking to help ensure coordination of children and young people's mental health support across different agencies.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department works closely with a number of agencies both inside and outside of the Government to support the mental health of children and young people. This includes working with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to deliver and evaluate innovative, community-based mental health and wellbeing support for young people. This includes 10 early support hubs across England, backed by £4.92 million of new funding until the end of 2024/25. These hubs are open to those aged between 11 and 25 years old, who may not meet the threshold to receive National Health Service support.
Our flagship joint programme is the children and young people green paper programme, working across the Department for Education and NHS England. We are ahead of target on delivery of mental health support in schools and colleges and the Department for Education has committed to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, with over 14,000 schools and colleges having taken up the offer so far.
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 assessment of the potential merits of developing a bespoke strategy for children's and young people's mental health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Following on from our mental health and wellbeing call for evidence in 2022, we decided to develop a Major Conditions Strategy. This strategy will be joined up rather than standalone and will ensure that mental health is considered alongside other physical health conditions, meaning the interactions between the two are reflected in any resulting commitments.
The Major Conditions Strategy’s case for change and strategic framework was published on 21 August 2023 and sets out a number of commitments to drive further improvements to support better mental health. The final Major Conditions Strategy is expected to be published later in 2024.