Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Department for Health did not respond to a request from The Observer for a comment on the rise in demand for youth mental health services.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department responded to the Observer on 17 July.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reports that the number of people aged 16-34 suffering from chronic pain increased from 21 per cent to 34 per cent between 2011 and 2017, what steps they plan to take to address that increase.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has made a number of recommendations for research on managing chronic pain, including the use of psychological therapies, acupuncture and pharmacological interventions.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are collaborating with stakeholders such as Versus Arthritis to co-produce and coordinate a strategy. Versus Arthritis have been commissioned to produce a decision support tool based on NICE guidance which can help people living with pain and their clinical teams understand all evidence-based options available. Alongside this tool, NHS England and NHS Improvement will also be publishing a commissioning framework to help local services reduce opioid prescribing in summer 2021.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the planned reorganisation of the NHS in England on the role of local government in (1) providing, and (2) funding, public health and social care.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government’s proposed Health and Care Bill will help local health and care systems deliver higher quality care to their local communities by establishing integrated care systems on a statutory basis.
The proposals will not change the role of local government in terms of its public health and social care responsibilities, the services it commissions or the funding of those services. An impact assessment for the Health and Care Bill will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to encourage nurses who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 to receive such vaccinations; and when they estimate all nurses will be vaccinated.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Nurses will continue to be offered the vaccine beyond mid-February, which includes invitations for the second dose. Information on vaccinating staff has been shared across the healthcare system briefing employers to ensure their staff are offered, and book appointments for, the vaccine.
While it is the responsibility of individual employers to arrange for their staff to be vaccinated, the National Health Service (NHS) has now also opened the National Booking Service to ensure that it is as easy as possible for nurses and other frontline health and social care workers, particularly those working outside the NHS, to access the vaccine. Staff using this service will be asked when booking to self-certify that they are eligible and will be told to take proof of their employment to their appointment at a vaccination centre or pharmacy-led site.
Local NHS employers are using tried and tested methods to encourage take-up within their organisations, based on the annual flu campaign This includes the provision of specific staff campaign materials; extensive engagement by senior nursing figures, such as Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England who regularly endorses and appeals for nurses to book vaccine appointments on behalf of the profession; and targeted engagement with nurses from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds designed to address queries as well as encouraging new international nurses to book appointments too. There is also ongoing information shared on social media for healthcare workers with staff and high profile health professionals sharing their vaccine stories.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 18 November (HL7591), when the recruitment process for a permanent Chair of the National Institute of Health Protection began; and when it will conclude.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Cabinet Office launched the advertisement for the permanent Chair of the National Institute of Heath Protection on 2 March which closes on 9 March. Further stages of the recruitment process are pending the outcome of the advertisement.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the criteria for the award of contracts to private companies for England’s COVID-19 Test and Trace services; what is the estimated cost of the Test and Trace programme; and what assessment they have made of reports that Test and Trace contractors are failing to meet targets.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Each of the Departmental COVID-19 contracts contain information on the award criteria, whether as a Direct Award using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 under which authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances or a call off contract from an existing Government framework contract.
The Government has allocated a total of £22 billion to the Test and Trace programme in 2020-21 with a further £15 billion for 2021-22. All contracts are being monitored to ensure that performance and quality assurance standards are being met. Where poor performance has been identified we have taken appropriate measures to rectify this.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the report by Healthwatch What people are telling us, published on 9 December 2020, which found that people are struggling to access NHS dentistry, (2) the reported increase in the sale of at-home dental kits by Boots in the last three months of 2020, and (3) British Dental Association analysis that dentists have provided around 19 million fewer treatments in England since March 2020 compared to the same period last year; and what plans they have to address these issues.
Answered by Lord Bethell
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what appointment or recruitment process, if any, was applied to the appointment of the chair of the National Institute of Health Protection.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Baroness Harding was appointed interim Chair of the National Institute of Health Protection on 18 August 2020 by the Prime Minister, while recruitment for a permanent candidate is completed. Baroness Harding receives no remuneration for this role or as Head of NHS Test and Trace.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of modelling by the Centre for Mental Health which indicates that up to 10 million people in England, including 1.5 million children and young people, will need new or additional mental health support as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic; what plans they have to consult (1) the NHS, and (2) local authorities, about this issue; and what assessment they have made of the funding required to meet mental health support needs.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are considering the Centre for Mental Health modelling report as well as other relevant emerging evidence as part of our ongoing monitoring of the potential impact of COVID-19 on mental health.
We recognise that there is the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing. As such, we are working with the National Health Service, Public Health England and others, including local authorities to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts of COVID-19.
As part of our plans for the NHS, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, there will be a comprehensive expansion and transformation of mental health services over the next five years with additional funding of £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. Over half of this will go to improving community mental health services and services to help people experiencing mental health crises.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why they have not published data on the results of community testing for COVID-19; and whether they plan to publish this data.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department regularly publishes the results of our community testing programmes.
Community testing for research purposes falls within Pillar 4, and the number of tests processed is available on the Testing tab of the Coronavirus Data page on GOV.UK, with positive cases reported on the Cases tab of the same webpage.
This data brings together various studies which are outlined in the COVID-19 Surveillance guidance page of GOV.UK, with specific data and analysis from each study available for download.