Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional support they are providing to children in areas with the worst oral health outcomes.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
The Government is committed to improving oral health and particularly of deprived children. This goal was set out in the 2017 manifesto and reflected in the recently published NHS Long Term Plan. Over 70 practices are currently trialling a new way of delivering primary care dentistry which focusses on prevention and helping patients to reduce their risk of future disease.
Alongside this the ‘Starting Well’ programme, led by NHS England, is designed to reach out to young children in high need areas who are not currently under the care of a dentist. These areas were selected on their level of current oral health. There are now over 300 practices participating in the scheme which began in spring 2018. In addition to the original scheme covering 13 areas NHS England has developed a similar model any area can commission and fund depending on local need.
Initiatives to improve children’s oral health are co-ordinated overall by Public Health England working through its Child Oral Health Improvement Programme Board. This brings together individual schemes along with wider work that influences oral health including the sugar levy as part of work to tackle obesity.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to promote awareness of the fact that NHS dental treatment is free for those under the age of 18.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
All those under the age of 18, or under 19 and in full time education, are exempt from National Health Service dental charges. Those who are pregnant or gave birth in the last 12 months or are on specified income related benefits are also exempt from charges.
Information on which groups of patients are exempt is widely available. All dental practices providing NHS care are contractually required to display a standard poster setting out current NHS charges and highlighting that patients may be exempt from or entitled to help with charges. This poster along with a patient leaflet setting out NHS dental entitlements in more detail, is provided free of charge to every practice in England delivering NHS dental treatment.
As well as in all NHS dental practices, information on charges and exemptions is also available through other channels such as the online NHS dental section (formerly NHS Choices) and in the NHS ‘help with health costs’ booklet. The NHS Business Services Authority provides information on NHS charges and who is exempt through its Twitter and Facebook social media channels. NHS England also runs periodic local initiatives, where it assesses if there is a need to further raise awareness locally among those patients who may be exempt or are through low income entitled to partial help with costs. Specifically, for parents starting out on parenthood, information that children receive free treatment is included in the personal child health record, the so called ‘red book’ all new parents are given.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the retention rate for new NHS nurses has increased in the last two years.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
Data relating to the retention of newly qualified nurses is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of apprentices training to become registered graduate nurses.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
The Department is fully committed to increasing the number of nursing apprenticeships. In support of this, we have developed a complete apprentice pathway from entry level nursing associate to postgraduate advanced clinical practice in nursing. This will support people from all backgrounds to enter a nursing career in the National Health Service.
In the 2017/18 academic year, there have been 300 apprenticeship starts recorded for the standard ‘registered nurse’ and 1,420 apprenticeship starts recorded for the standard ‘nursing associate’.
We are working closely with employers and Health Education England to make sure that the NHS is fully supported to recruit apprentices, both in nursing and in a range of other occupations and in doing so ensure the NHS has a workforce that is reflective of the population it serves.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in preparing the forthcoming Green Paper on the future funding of adult social care, whether emphasis will be placed on personalised preventative medicine and Screening Saves Lives; and what plans they have to reduce the screening age from 60 to 50 years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Green Paper on care and support will primarily focus on social care for older adults.
In terms of personalised preventative medicine, NHS England introduced the general practitioner contract in 2017/18. This aims to support people to live well for longer, through identifying patients who may be living with frailty and ensuring that they have access to the key evidence-based interventions including a falls assessment and medications review.
The Government is committed to providing well-managed screening programmes that are introduced following a robust process using peer reviewed evidence. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. The national cancer screening programmes in England include adult cancer screening programmes for cervical, breast and bowel cancer with varying age parameters, and any changes made to existing screening programmes will follow the UK NSC’s published evidence review process.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in preparing the forthcoming Green Paper on the future funding of adult social care, whether more emphasis will be placed on giving people greater control over the care they receive, and making paying for social care fairer and less dependent on the illness a person contracts.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Green Paper on Care and Support will include a focus on the principles of whole-person, integrated care and giving people receiving support the highest possible control.
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to the care and support they need, but we are clear that there should continue to be a principle of shared responsibility, and that people should continue to expect to contribute to their care as part of preparing for later life.
The Green Paper will bring forward ideas for including an element of risk pooling in the system, which will help to protect people from the highest costs. This will include proposals to place a limit on the care costs individuals face.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to offer screening for bowel cancer to all over 45s.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Following Ministerial approval of the United Kingdom National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) recommendation to introduce Faecal Immunochemical Testing as the primary screen test in the National Health Service Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, the UK NSC commissioned the Sheffield School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) to use existing evidence and modelling techniques to describe options for optimising bowel cancer screening. This includes different cut off levels for the test and various age ranges.
The UK NSC will continue to work with ScHARR and stakeholders, and will make a final recommendation in 2018.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to increase public awareness of the availability of free NHS dental treatment for under 19s.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
All those under the age of 18, or under 19 and in full time education are exempt from charges and qualify for free National Health Service dental treatment. Those who are pregnant or gave birth in the last 12 months or are on specified income related benefits are also charge exempt.
All dental practices holding an NHS contract are required to display a poster, provided free of charge, setting out current NHS charges and highlighting that patients may be exempt from, or entitled, to help with charges. The Department also provides all such practices with a patient leaflet setting out patient entitlements in more detail. In addition, this information is available online at NHS Choices. Locally, NHS England run periodic initiatives, based on need, to ensure awareness. A copy of the NHS practice poster is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what advice, if any, they have provided to NHS Trusts regarding the need to upgrade software and improve cyber-security.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department published Your Data: Better Security, Better Choice, Better Care in July 2017 in which the Government accepted the 10 Data Security Standards recommended by the National Data Guardian, Dame Fiona Caldicott. The document sets out the steps National Health Service trusts are expected to take to improve their cyber security resilience. Data Security Standard 8 specifically states that no unsupported operating systems, software or internet browsers are used within the IT estate.
NHS Digital published in May 2017 Unsupported Platforms – Good Practice Guide giving trusts technical guidance on how to upgrade software and improve cyber security.
In October 2017, the Department followed up by publishing the 2017/18 Data Security and Protection Requirements. This document sets out the steps all health and care organisations will be expected to take in 2017/18 to demonstrate that they are implementing the 10 Data Security Standards, prior to a new assurance framework coming into place from April 2018.
In 2015, NHS Digital established CareCERT to provide national cyber support to health and care organisations. This support includes cyber alerts with advice on software updates, direct support when cyber incidents occur, and also on-site support to assess local vulnerabilities to improve local resilience and mitigate the impact of future cyber incidents.
The above mentioned reports are attached.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of geographical differences in access to dental services across England; and whether differential rates of access account for differences in dental health.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
National surveys of child and adult oral health identify a number of contributing factors to account for differences in oral health including deprivation, geography, ethnicity and social class.
NHS England has a legal duty to commission primary care dental services to meet local needs and to work with local partners to address oral health needs identified in local health needs assessments. NHS England also undertake regular surveys of patient access to National Health Service dentistry, the latest was published in July 2017 and the results from the survey responses are presented at national (England), regional and Area Team level. A copy of Summary of the Dental Results from the GP Patient Survey – January to March 2017 is attached.
Access to primary care dental services continues to increase nationally. 22.2 million adults were seen by a dentist in the 24 month period ending 30 June 2017 and 6.8 million children were seen by a dentist in the 12 month period ending 30 June 2017, but we know NHS England has further to go in ensuring access needs are met in all areas.
The NHS England Starting Well programme will also operate in 13 high needs areas to reach out to children most at risk of dental decay who are not currently under the care of a dentist.