Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement a robust system to track the school nurse workforce to enable informed decision-making and resource allocation.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The child health workforce, including school nurses, who lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme is central to how we support children, young people, and families.
We are also committed to training the staff we need to ensure everyone receives care from the right professional, when and where they need it. We will want to assure ourselves, and the National Health Service, that the current workforce plan will deliver the reform needed. We will also need to do this in light of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Local authorities are best placed to determine local workforce needs, as they know their communities best. Determining the skills and workforce requirements should be underpinned by a local plan and led by the area’s identified health needs.
The Chief Public Health Nurse Office has established a programme of work which aims to improve the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which includes school nursing. This will include a review of the school nursing workforce data in England.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to end the geographical disparity in care by ensuring equitable distribution of school nurses on the basis of need.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The child health workforce, including school nurses, who lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme is central to how we support children, young people, and families.
We are also committed to training the staff we need to ensure everyone receives care from the right professional, when and where they need it. We will want to assure ourselves, and the National Health Service, that the current workforce plan will deliver the reform needed. We will also need to do this in light of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Local authorities are best placed to determine local workforce needs, as they know their communities best. Determining the skills and workforce requirements should be underpinned by a local plan and led by the area’s identified health needs.
The Chief Public Health Nurse Office has established a programme of work which aims to improve the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which includes school nursing. This will include a review of the school nursing workforce data in England.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of school nurses to ensure adequate coverage across the country.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The child health workforce, including school nurses, who lead the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme is central to how we support children, young people, and families.
We are also committed to training the staff we need to ensure everyone receives care from the right professional, when and where they need it. We will want to assure ourselves, and the National Health Service, that the current workforce plan will deliver the reform needed. We will also need to do this in light of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Local authorities are best placed to determine local workforce needs, as they know their communities best. Determining the skills and workforce requirements should be underpinned by a local plan and led by the area’s identified health needs.
The Chief Public Health Nurse Office has established a programme of work which aims to improve the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme, which includes school nursing. This will include a review of the school nursing workforce data in England.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the NHS, (2) NICE, and (3) MHRA, to ensure that NHS patients can access licensed treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department officials have had a number of conversations with colleagues in NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to discuss the progress of key regulatory decisions and the National Health Service's preparations for the adoption of any licensed and NICE recommended treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
The NICE is currently developing guidance for the NHS on the use of several potential new medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as currently consulting on its draft guidance on the use of lecanemab. The NICE has determined that the benefits of this first new treatment are just too small to justify the significant cost to the NHS. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is right that they are taken independently, and on the basis of the available evidence of costs and benefits. We understand how disappointing the NICE’s draft guidance will be to all those affected, but we need to make sure that the finite resources of the NHS are only spent on treatments that are clinically and cost effective, to ensure patient and taxpayer benefit. The NICE’s draft recommendations are now open to consultation, and the NICE will take the comments received fully into account in developing its final guidance.
Lecanemab is the first disease modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease with a marketing approval in Great Britain, and to ensure the health system is prepared for future advances in treatments, a dedicated NHS England team is already looking ahead to 27 other treatments which are currently in advanced clinical trials, that could potentially be approved by 2030.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to undertake a review into levels of childhood obesity and the role that the promotion of meals, snacks and drinks in early years settings can play in combatting this trend.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet, for the learning, development, and care of children from birth to five years old. The EYFS requires that where children are provided with meals, snacks, and drinks, they must be healthy, balanced, and nutritious. The EYFS also refers to example menus and guidance, which support parents, carers, and anyone working with children, to provide healthy food options. The Department for Education has also very recently published a range of tools and advice to support childminders, nursery leaders, and pre-school practitioners to improve the food offered in early years settings on the Help for early years providers platform.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the NHS is prepared for the arrival of new diagnostic innovations for dementia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The National Health Service is a world leader in rolling out innovative treatments and has established a dedicated national programme team which is working in partnership with other national agencies and with local health systems to prepare for the potential roll out of new treatments for use in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease. These plans assume that, if these new treatments are approved by the regulators, significant additional diagnostic capacity, including amyloid positron emission tomography–computed tomography, lumbar puncture and magnetic resonance imaging, will be needed both to identify patients who are most able to benefit and to provide important safety monitoring.
The national programme team is conducting preparations across the country, working alongside clinicians and local teams to identify where further funding will be required to roll out the additional tests and services needed to introduce these new and complex treatments.
NHS England is also working with partner agencies to support and inform further research into other diagnostic modalities, including blood-based biomarker and digital tests, which will help improve identification and management of Alzheimer’s disease.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect updated NHS wait times to be published for 2022 and 2023.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
NHS England publishes Referral to Treatment Waiting Times data for elective treatment monthly in an online-only format, including for 2022 and 2023. There are no plans to revise waiting times figures for these years.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to infant formula for families who need it but are finding that rising costs are making it unaffordable.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are committed to promoting a healthy diet for children and providing support to families who need it the most through our Healthy Start scheme, which can be used towards the cost of infant formula. In April 2021, the value of Healthy Start rose from £3.10 to £4.25 per week, providing additional support to pregnant women and families on lower incomes to make healthy food choices. Children aged under one year old receive £8.50 in total per week, a rise from £6.20 a week.
Infant formula legislation under the Retained Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/127 sets robust nutritional and compositional standards to ensure that all infant formulas, including cheaper options, provide all the nutrients a healthy baby needs.
The Government launched the Household Support Fund in 2021 which was distributed by councils in England to directly help vulnerable households meet daily needs such as food, clothing, and utilities. The Government announced an extension of the fund to March 2024, which means since 2021 the fund has made £2.5 billion available to families most in need of support.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have made to address concerns in the social care sector about the closure of care homes caused by the loss of staff from overseas as a result of restrictions on staff bringing their families to the UK.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We recognise the importance of international recruitment to ensure we have sufficient supply of care workers and senior care workers. This is why the Government decided to add care workers to the Shortage Occupation List in February 2022, in response to unprecedented workforce pressures.
On 4 December 2023, the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced a five-point plan to curb legal net migration, including removing the right for care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants to the United Kingdom and restricting access to the route to employers who are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has committed to put estimates of the impact of these announcements in the House of Commons Library. This will be set out in due course.
The Government is committed to building a sustainable adult social care workforce. As part of this, international recruitment has bolstered the workforce with 101,000 out of country visa grants for care workers and senior care workers to the year ending September 2023. While at home, we are backing domestic recruitment with our National Recruitment Campaign, working with the Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers, and funding sector partner to support employers and commissioners to improve recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many refugees from Afghanistan have been registered with the NHS; and how many have been provided with access to (1) a GP, and (2) maternal, (3) dental, and (4) mental health, services, within the past year.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We do not hold the data in the format requested. Clinical systems do not record whether individuals have been resettled through an Afghan resettlement scheme.