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 reported growth in reliance on the employment of locum doctors in GP practices and the extent, if any, to which the employment of full-time doctors in GP practices has declined.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The latest statistics, published on 27 September, as at 31 March 2016, show that the total full time equivalent general practitioners (GPs), including locums was 34,914, an increase of 323, compared to September 2015.
The same statistics showed that on 31 March 2016, there were 601 locums recorded as working in GP practices on that one day. On the day of 30 September 2015, 537 locums were recorded working in GP practices.
Locum doctors cover a variety of roles, including vacancies and absences such as maternity, training and annual leave. Not all practices completed returns or provided detailed information on the type of GP that was working in the practice, on either 30 September and/or 31 March, which means that it is not possible to compare the data of September 2015 and March 2016.
The data that NHS Digital publish on the general practice workforce is labelled provisional, experimental statistics, as they use a new methodology/data set and collection vehicles. These statistics replace the traditional GP census. The new data set, introduced in September 2015, collected information on locum doctors for the first time.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the number of Deprivation of Liberty orders sought by care home owners and the proportion which are rejected, whether they are considering taking steps to improve the system; and if so, when they will publish details of those planned steps.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department has commissioned the Law Commission to carry out a review of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. The review is expected to be published at the end of the year.
The Department will consider what steps may be necessary to improve the system in light of the review.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the North East Commissioning Service has not accepted an offer from Newcastle City Council's Director of Public Health to place a contract to modify data systems to facilitate analysis at council ward level.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
This is an operational matter for the Commissioning Support Unit and the local Council.
The North of England Commissioning Support Unit advises that it has held discussions with the Director of Public Health but is not aware of any offer to place a contract with the organisation.
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 Oxford University study <i>Psychiatric disorders and violent reoffending: a national cohort study of convicted prisoners in Sweden</i>, and whether they have plans to improve the current level of diagnosis of and treatment provided to prisoners with mental health problems before their release.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
We have made no assessment.
The joint National Health Service and National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) programme provides a pathway of psychologically informed services for offenders who have a severe personality disorder and who pose a high risk of harm to others or a high risk of reoffending in a harmful way.
The programme has developed a range of services to improve the assessment, treatment and management of this group of offenders from sentence through custody to community-based supervision and resettlement. The NHS is re-investing up to £30 million in OPD services in 2015-16, mainly in prisons and probation services.
In response to the objective in the Government’s Mandate to NHS England to provide better healthcare across for people in the criminal justice system in England, including improved mental health care, NHS England has introduced a range of measures to improve mainstream mental health services in prisons.
NHS England’s new national specifications for health and justice services will help to promote effective and coordinated mental health services across the prison estate in England. All 116 prison establishments now have clear commissioning strategies to improve service delivery.
NHS England has also developed new performance indicators for prison healthcare with NOMS. These Health and Justice Indicators of Performance will provide assurance that healthcare delivery in prisons, including mental health care, is fit for purpose.
Options for a new mental health pathway, connecting custody, community, as well as secure hospitals, are also being developed to ensure that any prisoner can have mental health treatment equivalent to that they would receive in the community, and that this is also available during a community sentence and after prison.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultation they conducted before deciding to discontinue funding the College of Social Work; and with whom.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Government was approached by the College of Social Work (the College) in March to discuss their financial situation for 2015-16 and beyond. As a result the College initiated an internal review of its functions and business model. The report demonstrated that even with the proposed level of Government funding, the College would be running at a loss. The financial health of an organisation is a key factor in the decision to award grant funding. The Department would not continue to provide grant funding to any organisation that is deemed to be financially unsustainable under HM Treasury rules (Managing Public Money). Therefore, funding is being provided in 2015-16 to ensure an orderly transfer of its Government funded work to other bodies.