Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will assess the main consequences of disparities between the UK Chief Medical Officer's low risk alcohol guidelines and comparative international guidelines.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines are linked to UK–specific consumption and harm data.
The aim of the guidelines is to ensure the UK public have the most up to date information to help them understand the risks alcohol may pose to their health and to make decisions about their consumption in the light of those risks.
It should be noted that comparisons between countries can be misleading because there are large variations in how different countries define ‘low risk’ drinking, and even how they define a standard drink.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the efficacy of the Chief Medical Officer's alcohol consumption guidelines on public health.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines were published in January this year.
It is too early to say what impact of the UK CMOs’ low risk drinking guidelines will have on alcohol consumption but we will be monitoring the public awareness of the guidelines through the Health Survey for England, commissioned by NHS Digital, which will be published in December 2016.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct NHS England to develop a specialist referral clinic to support and treat people with persisting mild to moderate cognitive and neurobehavioral problems as a result of exposure to carbon monoxide.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Commissioning of services to support and treat people with persisting mild to moderate cognitive and neurobehavioral problems would be the commissioning responsibility of clinical commissioning groups. Specialised cognitive and neurobehavioural services already exist for brain injury and are included in the NHS England specialised neurorehabilitation service specification. The Department’s activity focuses on raising awareness amongst the public and medical professionals to the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps Health Education England plans to take to ensure that the strategic review of the cancer workforce addresses the complex needs of the growing number of people living with and beyond cancer.
Answered by David Mowat
Delivering high quality, effective, compassionate care: Developing the right people with the right skills and the right values - A mandate from the Government to Health Education England: April 2016 to March 2017 (October 2016) states that Health Education England (HEE) will continue to take forward relevant recommendations set out in the independent Cancer Task Force report, Achieving World Class Cancer Outcomes: a strategy for England 2015 - 2020, including working with partners to develop a vision for the future shape and skills mix of the workforce required to deliver a modern, holistic patient-centred cancer service and report by December 2016.
Supported by Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, HEE has been leading on this recommendation and has completed an initial cancer workforce baseline review that has been shared and discussed with key stakeholders. The review is regularly updated with emerging intelligence from Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) areas on the workforce they require to deliver the cancer service challenge.
In addition, HEE is leading on a major piece of work to address the workforce challenges in transforming cancer services, which includes a skills mix review. It has agreed an approach with key stakeholders for the review and will be working through Local Workforce Action Boards, Vanguards and Cancer Alliances to understand the skills mix needed for emerging cancer service models. HEE will report back on this work in March 2017.
HEE will also be working with the National Cancer Transformation Board’s Living With and Beyond Cancer Oversight Group to understand the workforce requirements outlined in Implementing the Cancer Taskforce Recommendations: Commissioning Person Centred Care for People Affected By Cancer (April 2016), including reviewing good practice in approaches to reduce and managing long term consequences of treatment. HEE will work with STPs and clinical commissioning groups to support their service proposals by identifying and addressing the workforce challenges to develop the workforce to put this guidance into action.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2016 to Question 41738, what steps his Department is taking to encourage part-time clinical staff to move into full-time roles.
Answered by Philip Dunne
When making decisions on flexible working including part time working, National Health Service employers need to take a long term whole career view. An increase in participation is best achieved by the offer of flexible working in an environment that encourages staff to increase their hours when it fits with their personal circumstances.
Flexible working practices, including part-time working, have been adopted with widespread success across most professions in the NHS and are backed up by employment legislation including: the Employment Relations Act (Amendment 2005), the Employment Act (Amendment 2005); the Employment Act 2002: Flexible working, and the Work and Families Act 2006.
The Department continues to support NHS Employers in their work on encouraging flexible working through tools, resources and the sharing of good practice available on their website:
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS clinical staff that work part-time are additionally registered as agency staff.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The proportion of National Health Service clinical staff who work part-time is in the attached table. The figures are taken from the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s monthly workforce statistics and cover staff working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups.
The number of NHS clinical staff who work part-time and are additionally registered as agency staff is not collected centrally.