Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 4.3 of the Government response to the Fifty-fourth report of Session 2022-23 from the Committee of Public Accounts on Alcohol treatment services, HC 1001, published on 21 July 2023, what steps her Department has taken to identify opportunities to share best practice of alcohol treatment in local areas.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) published a toolkit for local authorities in August 2023 to help local authorities compare treatment numbers to their estimated dependent populations and identify whether specific referral pathways need strengthening. The toolkit also contains guidance on good practice to reduce the level of unmet need and target priority or underserved groups.
Alongside the toolkit, two case studies were published on how local areas have taken successful action to reduce unmet need for alcohol treatment.
The toolkit is available to local commissioners and service providers in the restricted area of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System website and has been accessed approximately 2,000 times each month since its launch. OHID continues to develop the toolkit report by adding components, including support for local authorities to improve pathways from the criminal justice system.
Other steps taken by OHID to support system improvement and the sharing of local best-practice include regional events and working groups for commissioners and service providers.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 5.3 of the Government response to the Fifty-fourth report of Session 2022-23 from the Committee of Public Accounts on Alcohol treatment services, HC 1001, published on 21 July 2023, what progress her Department has made on its toolkit for local authorities.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) published a toolkit for local authorities in August 2023 to help local authorities compare treatment numbers to their estimated dependent populations and identify whether specific referral pathways need strengthening. The toolkit also contains guidance on good practice to reduce the level of unmet need and target priority or underserved groups.
Alongside the toolkit, two case studies were published on how local areas have taken successful action to reduce unmet need for alcohol treatment.
The toolkit is available to local commissioners and service providers in the restricted area of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System website and has been accessed approximately 2,000 times each month since its launch. OHID continues to develop the toolkit report by adding components, including support for local authorities to improve pathways from the criminal justice system.
Other steps taken by OHID to support system improvement and the sharing of local best-practice include regional events and working groups for commissioners and service providers.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 6.2 of the Government response to the Fifty-fourth report of Session 2022-23 from the Committee of Public Accounts on Alcohol treatment services, HC 1001, published on 21 July 2023, when she plans to publish (a) phase 1 of the national drug and alcohol treatment and recovery capability framework and (b) a workforce calculator.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The substance misuse workforce strategic plan will outline the actions needed in the next year, next three years, next five years and next 10 years to build back quality in the drug and alcohol workforce and develop a sustainable pipeline into the sector. It will be underpinned by a capability framework, which will provide new guidance on the knowledge and skills required for core roles amongst the drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce. It is being designed to be used alongside a newly developed workforce calculator.
There has been extensive engagement with the sector on the development of these products. The first part of the capability framework will be published by December 2023 and will be followed by the strategic plan. The workforce calculator is due to be published in spring 2024.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 6.2 of the Government response to the Fifty-fourth report of Session 2022-23 from the Committee of Public Accounts on Alcohol treatment services, HC 1001, published on 21 July 2023, what her planned timetable is for publishing the substance misuse workforce strategic plan.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The substance misuse workforce strategic plan will outline the actions needed in the next year, next three years, next five years and next 10 years to build back quality in the drug and alcohol workforce and develop a sustainable pipeline into the sector. It will be underpinned by a capability framework, which will provide new guidance on the knowledge and skills required for core roles amongst the drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce. It is being designed to be used alongside a newly developed workforce calculator.
There has been extensive engagement with the sector on the development of these products. The first part of the capability framework will be published by December 2023 and will be followed by the strategic plan. The workforce calculator is due to be published in spring 2024.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 2.3 of the Government response to the Fifty-fourth report of Session 2022-23 from the Committee of Public Accounts on Alcohol treatment services, HC 1001, published on 21 July 2023, what progress she has made towards updating the estimated cost of alcohol to society; and what her planned timetable is for publishing that estimate.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department updated the previous 2012 estimate to reflect inflation based on the latest available data. In 2021, the cost of alcohol to society was estimated at £25 billion. The Department has also initiated a longer-term piece of work to refine this estimate, beginning with a review of existing evidence of the impact of alcohol consumption on the National Health Service and labour market productivity.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 4.5 of the Government response to the Fifty-fourth report of Session 2022-23 from the Committee of Public Accounts on Alcohol treatment services, HC 1001, published on 21 July 2023, what her planned timetable is for publishing the joint action plan with NHS England to address co-occurring mental health and drug/alcohol-related conditions.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is developing a Joint Action Plan with NHS England to address co-occurring mental health and drug/alcohol-related conditions. This programme of work aims to improve access to mental health services for people with drug and alcohol misuse conditions, as well as improve the links between mental health and substance misuse services.
The Department is continuing to work with NHS England on this programme, and we aim to publish the Joint Action Plan in 2024.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Answer of 20 July 2023 to 194469 on HIV Infection and Viral Diseases: Screening, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the opt-out HIV and blood-borne virus testing programme in tackling health inequalities.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 9 November 2023, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published an evaluation of the first year of the bloodborne virus (BBV) opt-out testing in emergency departments in local areas with extremely high HIV prevalence. This includes a public health evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of the opt-out testing programme and assessment of any potential inequalities in the uptake of bloodborne virus testing and linkage to care.
Findings show that the programme has made a significant contribution to BBV testing in England with more than half the number of tests done in the programme compared to BBV tests in other settings. The programme has been particularly successful in engaging harder to reach groups, such as older people, women, people from non-white British backgrounds, and people living in the most deprived areas.
The UKHSA report is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bloodborne-viruses-opt-out-testing-in-emergency-departments/emergency-department-bloodborne-virus-opt-out-testing-12-month-interim-report-2023
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the email of 19 September 2023 to the Prime Minister from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton on the Care Supporters Bill.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department replied to the honourable gentleman on 17 November 2023.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2023 to Question 197002 on Tobacco: support for stop smoking services, whether he plans to expand the scope of the swap to stop scheme to include licensed (a) nicotine replacement therapies and (b) stop smoking medicines.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no current plans to expand the Swap to Stop programme to include nicotine replacement therapies or stop smoking medicines, as they are already routinely provided by local Stop Smoking Services.
The Swap to Stop programme has been developed to provide smokers with more choice by providing the option of accessing free vapes to support quit attempts, in addition to the existing offer. This programme includes expert support provided by local Stop Smoking Services.
Stop Smoking Services continue to enable smokers to access a combination of behavioural support from a trained advisor as well as medicines and medicinally licensed nicotine replacement therapy for up to 12 weeks.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that 76% of patients are admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours in A&Es by March 2024.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under our Delivery plan to recover urgent and emergency care services, we are taking a range of measures to improve patient flow through hospital and reduce waiting times in accident and emergency.
These include the delivery of 5,000 more staffed, permanent beds this year compared to 2022/23 plans, supported by £1 billion of dedicated funding. This is alongside a further £1.6 billion of funding for social care to reduce the numbers of beds occupied by patients ready to be discharged. We are also improving hospital discharge processes by establishing ‘Care transfer hubs’ in every hospital ahead of next winter, alongside new approaches to step-down care to free up bed capacity for those who need it. We are also scaling up the use of virtual wards by an additional 3,000 beds, with over 10,000 beds now available nationally.