Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on increasing the number of mental health support teams in schools.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local populations. We are supporting them to expand mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, which commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/2024 compared to 2018/2019.
Part of this increased investment will enable an additional 345,000 children and young people aged between 0-25 years of age to access National Health Service-funded mental health services and mental health support teams in schools and colleges. Spend for children and young people’s mental health services has increased from £841.4 million in 2019/2020 to £994.8 million in 2021/2022, with a planned spend of £1.0815 billion in 2022/2023. This funding is across both NHS specialised commissioning and local commissioning. The source of this data is the NHS England dashboard, which is published quarterly. Previous and most recent NHS mental health dashboards are available at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard
We are making good progress on expanding access year on year, as the number of children and young people aged under 18 supported through NHS-funded mental health services, with at least one contact with services, was 689,621 in the year up to July 2022 compared to 618,537 in the year up to July 2021.
As of spring 2022, there were 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned. By next month we except this to have increased to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what NHS mental health support is in place for young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local populations. We are supporting them to expand mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, which commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/2024 compared to 2018/2019.
Part of this increased investment will enable an additional 345,000 children and young people aged between 0-25 years of age to access National Health Service-funded mental health services and mental health support teams in schools and colleges. Spend for children and young people’s mental health services has increased from £841.4 million in 2019/2020 to £994.8 million in 2021/2022, with a planned spend of £1.0815 billion in 2022/2023. This funding is across both NHS specialised commissioning and local commissioning. The source of this data is the NHS England dashboard, which is published quarterly. Previous and most recent NHS mental health dashboards are available at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard
We are making good progress on expanding access year on year, as the number of children and young people aged under 18 supported through NHS-funded mental health services, with at least one contact with services, was 689,621 in the year up to July 2022 compared to 618,537 in the year up to July 2021.
As of spring 2022, there were 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned. By next month we except this to have increased to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to provide mental health support for NHS staff.
Answered by Will Quince
It is a priority for this Government to support the mental health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff. NHS planning guidance for 2023/24 emphasised the need to support staff and has asked systems to refresh their 2022/23 whole system workforce plans to improve staff experience and retention through a systematic focus on all elements of the NHS People Promise.
The NHS People Plan and People Promise set out a comprehensive range of actions to strengthen health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and increase opportunities for flexible working.
NHS England have developed a number of health and wellbeing initiatives which include a wellbeing guardian role, a focus on healthy working environments, empowering line managers to hold meaningful conversations with staff to discuss their wellbeing, and a comprehensive emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support package.
NHS staff can also access NHS Practitioner Health, a national support service for staff with more complex mental health needs brough about by serious issues such as trauma or addiction.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 merits of a national strategy for eye care.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England, through the transformation programme, is considering how eye care services should be commissioned to ensure future sustainability. NHS England have appointed Louisa Wickham as a national clinical director for eyecare to oversee the recovery of eye care services and longer-term transformation. This sits alongside action already being taken to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of sight threatening conditions.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 bringing forward legislative proposals on regulating the eye surgery industry.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made. Doctors performing refractive eye surgery in the United Kingdom must be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), the independent regulator of all medical doctors practising in the UK. Providers who carry out refractive eye surgery must also be registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. All refractive eye surgery locations are monitored and, where necessary, inspected by CQC. If CQC become aware of any concerns regarding an individual medical practitioner, then CQC will notify the GMC.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 average length of time for urgent cancer referrals in (a) Watford constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected in the format requested.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help increase the level of early cancer diagnosis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Achieving earlier and faster diagnosis of cancer is a priority for the National Health Service. That is why one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028.
NHS England’s plan to improve cancer outcomes and accelerate cancer diagnoses is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis.
This includes the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaigns, which focus on specific symptoms linked to certain cancer types and tackle the fear-related barriers to seeking help from the NHS, across all cancer types.
The introduction of non-specific symptoms pathways, of which there are now 102 across England, offers a route that general practitioners can use with patients whose symptoms do not align with one suspected cancer pathway, such as abdominal pain or weight loss.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 adequacy of support offered for people in the health service who use British Sign Language as their first language in (a) Watford constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made. In November 2020, NHS England commissioned the North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS) to undertake a Rapid Review of British Sign Language (BSL) service provision across England in the National Health Service. The Rapid Review was completed in May 2021 and contained 17 recommendations to address the identified health inequalities experienced by BSL users. NHS England has established and is supporting a national network of BSL Regional Leads to share the outcomes from the BSL Rapid Review and to support the implementation of the Review's recommendations.
Furthermore, following Royal Assent of the BSL Act 2022, the Government Communication Service will promote and facilitate the use of BSL in communications with the public. This is expected to support BSL users to access public services, including health and care services.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce care disparities for different cancer types.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to helping achieve the NHS Long-Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of patients at an early stage by 2028 and reducing inequalities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the National Health Service’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities.
Reducing variation in cancer treatment is a strategic priority for the NHS Cancer Programme. The NHS Cancer Programme has commissioned five new cancer clinical audits, which will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October last year with the first outcomes expected in 2023/24. The audits will cover ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer and primary and metastatic breast cancer.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the diagnosis of (a) lung, (b) pancreatic, (c) liver, (d) stomach, (e) brain, (f) oesophageal and (g) other less survivable cancers.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Achieving earlier and faster diagnosis of cancer is a priority for the National Health Service. That is why one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028. NHS England’s plan to improve cancer outcomes and accelerate cancer diagnoses is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis.
This includes the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaigns, which focus on specific symptoms linked to certain cancer types and tackle the fear-related barriers to seeking help from the NHS, across all cancer types. The introduction of non-specific symptoms pathways, of which there are now 102 across England, means general practitioners can rapidly refer patients whose symptoms do not align with one suspected cancer pathway, such as abdominal pain or weight loss.