Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that countries supported by the Department for International Development are investing in their healthcare systems through domestic resources.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Strong and resilient health systems that meet essential health care needs for all are central to our health efforts. DFID supports countries to mobilise and allocate more of their own domestic resources for health through international advocacy, multilateral investment and our programmes. We also fund technical assistance to strengthen and implement robust health financing strategies and reforms, helping countries to achieve ‘more money for health and more health for the money’.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding the Department for International Development has allocated to the promotion of Universal Health Coverage.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID is the world’s second largest health donor. Strengthening health systems to deliver universal health coverage (UHC) is a priority for the UK and an overarching goal for DFID health investments. However, we do not classify spend on promoting UHC separately from other health investments.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to address equal access to vaccines to ensure that the most marginalised children are immunised.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK believes all children should have access to lifesaving vaccines, no matter where they live. Equitable vaccine coverage is therefore a key priority for the UK’s support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. This investment provides immunisation to the poorest children in 68 of the world’s poorest countries. Gavi will vaccinate an additional 76 million children by 2020, preventing 1.4 million deaths from vaccine preventable diseases.
As well as providing support to strengthen the overall health system, Gavi focuses on improving access and equity by identifying the populations and geographical areas most likely to be under immunised and at risk of outbreaks. Gavi have also adapted their model to include a Fragility, Emergency and Refugees policy which provides a more quick and flexible response in fragile countries. This has helped reach unimmunised children in places like Syria and in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.
As a Gavi Board member, the UK advocates for equitable coverage as a core priority both now and in the future.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to support poorer countries and emerging economies to (1) secure fair vaccine prices, (2) increase coverage of vaccine availability, and (3) save more lives.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK is a world leader in improving global immunisation. The UK is the largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which provides immunisation support to 68 of the world’s poorest countries.
Gavi provides vaccines for 60% of the annual global birth cohort, providing it with strong purchasing power that Gavi then uses to ensure vaccines prices are affordable to low income countries. This model is extremely successful and has reduced the cost of immunising a child with three key vaccines by 17% since 2016. By advocating with vaccine manufacturers to retain affordable prices, Gavi also supports countries transitioning from its support, with every transitioned country since 2016 procuring vaccines at the same or lower price.
Gavi’s scale also enables it to increase coverage and availability of vaccines in the poorest nations. By significantly reducing vaccine prices, Gavi has reduced a principal barrier that has enabled it to support the introduction of 380 vaccines. To ensure these reach the most marginalised, Gavi’s support focuses on areas with the lowest coverage and helps develop strong health systems capable of delivering vaccines.
The effectiveness of Gavi’s model has seen 10 million lives saved from vaccine preventable diseases. In 2020, the UK will proudly host the replenishment of Gavi, providing a strong opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of Gavi to increase access to vaccinations and save lives in the world’s poorest nations.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in ensuring price transparency of vaccines.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK recognises the importance of ensuring vaccines are affordable for the poorest nations and the role price transparency has in supporting this. Our significant investment in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and support for global initiatives helps progress on increasing the transparency of vaccine prices and ensuring vaccines remain affordable to the world’s poorest nations.
Gavi provides vaccines for 60% of the annual global birth cohort, providing it with significant purchasing power which it uses to foster competition and broaden suppliers of vaccines. This approach ensures vaccines are available at sustainable and affordable prices and has helped reduce the cost of immunising a child with three key vaccines by 17% since 2016. Gavi procures vaccines through UNICEF, which publicises historic, current and future prices for vaccines. Our strong investment in Gavi therefore helps to provide full transparency of vaccine costs for 68 of the world’s poorest countries.
Outside of Gavi supported countries, the UK has helped make progress on vaccine pricing transparency by supporting the World Health Organisation’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action and Roadmap for Access to Medicines. This plan helps increase global price transparency whist protecting the innovation that is crucial for future vaccine development. UK support for the Access to Medicines Index also helps increase transparency on efforts by pharmaceutical companies to improve the affordability and availability of their medicines.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they are approaching the upcoming replenishment period and strategy review with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK is delighted to be hosting the Gavi Replenishment in 2020. Gavi has immunised over 700 million children, saving 10 million lives from preventable diseases. The UK is proud to have played a significant role in delivering these extraordinary results.
As hosts of the Replenishment Conference, our priority will be to help Gavi secure the funding it needs to further deliver its life-saving work. The replenishment period is also a terrific opportunity to demonstrate the impact of the UK’s contribution to Gavi for the world’s poorest and to recognise the extraordinary work done by British innovators, academics and health advocates to support Gavi’s mission.
The next strategic period for Gavi is critically important and the UK will continue to press for further improvements. This includes promoting equitable coverage of immunisation to leave no-one behind and ensure vaccines are available for the most vulnerable. The UK will also prioritise ensuring our investment in Gavi is sustainable and delivers maximum value for money by supporting countries to effectively transition from Gavi support to increased domestic funding.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the extra resources they have provided to schools to prevent and tackle mental health problems will be effective.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government recognises the importance of schools and colleges having access to expertise relating to mental health and wellbeing. The new Mental Health Support Teams that the government is introducing to support groups of schools can help to provide that expertise. The teams will consist of staff trained in evidence-based interventions, supervised by clinically-trained staff. The rollout of the new teams will start with a trailblazer project that will be evaluated. The trailblazers will test how teams work with schools, to ensure the additional support is benefitting schools and their pupils.
The department is also trialling five school-based approaches to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. This large programme will provide schools with evidence on the effectiveness of different types of provisions. It will also review how these interventions can be delivered effectively in a school setting.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the current educational system's (1) use of early testing, (2) exam focus, and (3) practice of comparing pupils with each other, on the creation of a positive environment for the mental health of both pupils and teachers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Assessments, including the national curriculum tests at key stages 1 and 2 and GCSE and A level exams, are an essential part of ensuring that children and young people are taught the knowledge and skills they need in order to succeed in further study and in later life. Statutory assessments at key stages 1 and 2 help teachers to understand how their pupils are performing against national expectations and enable them to identify where extra support may be needed. Both these statutory assessments and the qualifications taken at secondary level enable the government to hold schools and colleges to account, and in doing so help to ensure that they offer a high quality education to all their pupils, regardless of background or prior attainment.
Tests and exams can be a time of heightened emotions for pupils and teachers, but they are not meant to cause stress and anxiety. Schools should encourage all pupils to work hard and achieve well, but this should not be at the expense of their wellbeing. They should also provide appropriate support as part of a whole school approach to supporting the wellbeing and resilience of pupils.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the work undertaken by the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust on mental health in schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department is supportive of the work that the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust does to raise the profile of depression and mental health issues in children and young people and to encourage discussion of the subject. Officials from the department have met members of the trust and the Charlie Waller Institute on several occasions to discuss the support they offer and the training they have developed for schools, supported by funding from Health Education England.
Both organisations have been involved in stakeholder events to discuss mental health policy; they were also invited to attend the consultation events for the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper. The department will continue to engage with the Charlie Walker Memorial Trust as the green paper proposals are reviewed, and as the support that can be offered to schools for delivering the new requirement to teach all pupils about mental health is being considered.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish their response to the report by the Independent Commission on Adult Acute Psychiatric Care in England Old Problems, New Solutions, published in February 2016; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
NHS England intends to publish a formal response to the Independent Commission on Adult Acute Psychiatric Care in England as soon as the contents of the acute mental healthcare pathway have been finalised.
An acute mental health care pathway for adults, including best practice case studies, has been developed. This is currently being reviewed to ensure that it is in line with and supports the wider Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and the long-term plan for the National Health Service (which is currently in development following the Government’s announcement of a new five-year funding settlement for the NHS, which would deliver an average annual growth of 3.4% over the next five years). The aim is to ensure that the pathway provides the most helpful and relevant guidance to both commissioners and providers within the current context.