Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support the NHS provides to (a) children and (b) young adults after receiving an autism diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for York Outer on 12 September 2023 to Question 197738.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 tackle autism assessment backlogs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Rt Hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells on 8 September 2023 to Question 195909.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 the 25 of May 2023 to Question 185279 on Health Services and with reference to Lord Markham's letter of 30 August 2023 to the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, whether the figures on the average impact across the 24 trusts involved in realising benefits through the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme on (a) waiting list reduction and (b) increased efficient usage theatres are available; and if will take steps to publish that data.
Answered by Will Quince
The Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme is still in the pilot stage and data continues to be collated to assess the benefits that are being derived from the implementation of the Care Coordination Solution tool. The tool remains at different stages of implementation in each of the pilot trusts and NHS England is working with the trusts. NHS England is committed to sharing data in due course as the tool is embedded further and more data points become available.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential (a) overall impact and (b) impact on each trust involved of the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme on (i) waiting lists, (ii) staff performance, (iii) treating patients and (iv) theatre scheduling.
Answered by Will Quince
The Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme is monitoring benefits against waiting lists, staff performance, treating patients and theatre scheduling.
These benefits are collected on a regular basis and will grow as more trusts embed the use of the tool in their operational processes. The programme is assessing benefits at a trust level, monitoring the delivery of the solution and levels of adoption. Benefits are discussed with Trusts and used to support the continued drive for adoption and use of the Care Coordination Solution. As of May 2023, the programme is delivering benefits in 24 trusts for data validation and 23 for theatre utilisation.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 tackle the backlog in health and services for disabled children.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
To tackle backlogs in elective care, including where accessed by disabled children, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity. This funding could deliver the equivalent of around nine million more checks and procedures and will mean the National Health Service in England can aim to deliver approximately 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than before the pandemic.
In addition, the Department for Education is providing support for families of children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability). This support includes an investment of £6.1 million this financial year to strengthen the participation of parents and young people in the SEND system. The Department for Education is also investing £27.3 million this year to support low-income families with seriously ill or disabled with the cost of equipment, goods and services through Support for Families with Disabled Children Funding.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 ensure improved engagement and support for children and families from health and social care services as part of the SEND Improvement Plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are working closely with the Department for Education to implement actions set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision Implementation Plan, with the aim of improving engagement and support for children and young people with SEND and their families.
This includes working with the Department for Education to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning. We will establish a steering group this year to oversee this work, which we aim to complete by 2025. We will be commissioning analysis on the health needs of children and young people with SEND so these can be better met through effective workforce planning.
We will improve access to speech and language therapy by including Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within our £70 million Change Programme in partnership with NHS England. The pathfinders will trial new ways of supporting children with speech, language and communication needs in early years and primary schools.
Local SEND and AP Partnerships will bring together representatives across early years, schools, further education, alternative and specialist provision, in addition to health, care and other partners, to increase national consistency, putting co-production at the centre of decision making. They will be responsible for working with parents and carers to produce a Local Inclusion Plan setting out the provision and services that should be commissioned in line with the national standards. This will inform the local offer and will be quality assured by the Department for Education.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy papers entitled (a) The national strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026 and (b) Autism strategy implementation plan: 2021 to 2022 (Annex A), when he plans to publish the Autism strategy implementation plan for 2022 to 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There is currently no confirmed publication date for an updated implementation plan in relation to the national strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026 (published July 2021).
We are currently prioritising updating the Autism Act statutory guidance to support the National Health Service and Local Authorities to deliver improved outcomes for autistic people in line with the national Strategy. We expect to publish an updated implementation plan for subsequent years of the Strategy in due course.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to simplify ombudsman services in health and social care.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Government is considering reports of the Public Administration Select Committee into how complaints about public services are handled. As part of this inquiry, the Cabinet Office is undertaking work to further investigate how public services can make best use of complaints and also to take a wider look at the role and powers of the public sector Ombudsmen. The Government will respond to these reports in due course.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to raise awareness among service users of how to navigate the complaints systems in health and social care.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Department is working with partners across the health and care system to make improvements to complaints handling. This includes Healthwatch England working to improve the information and advice that people receive when they need support to raise a concern or make a complaint. It also includes working with the Care Quality Commission as they develop their inspection methodology across health and social care so it places greater emphasis on listening to, and learning from, complaints as well as other sources of patient feedback. A single legislative framework exists for complaints handling to ensure consistency across the health and social care system.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment on the potential merits of merging health and social care ombudsman services in England.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Government is considering reports of the Public Administration Select Committee into how complaints about public services are handled. As part of this inquiry, the Cabinet Office is undertaking work to further investigate how public services can make best use of complaints and also to take a wider look at the role and powers of the public sector Ombudsmen. The Government will respond to these reports in due course.