Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department routinely makes an assessment of the availability of NHS dentistry services for (a) adults and (b) children in (i) London and (ii) England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department routinely monitors Dental Statistics, published by NHS Digital, which brings together information on National Health Service dental activity in England, including at NHS Commissioning Regions and local authority levels. Dental Statistics is available from the following link:
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dental services, including domiciliary care. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care bhoards (ICBs) from April 2023. ICBs will be responsible for meeting the needs of its local population, including on access for adults and children, by working with patient groups. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurance that commissioning functions are carried out safely and effectively by ICBs.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has had recent discussions with (a) NHS England and (b) NHS Trusts on whistleblowing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has frequent engagement with stakeholders involved in whistleblowing and speaking up, including NHS England and the National Guardian’s Office. The Department does not regularly engage directly with National Health Service trusts on whistleblowing but rather works through NHS England and the National Guardian’s Office to drive improvement. Both NHS England and the National Guardian’s Office have direct engagement with NHS trusts.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of trends in the level of whistleblowing cases within the NHS in the last three years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to make an assessment. Data on whistleblowing incidents in the National Health Service is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial support his Department provides to carers running medical equipment and devices.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s cost of living support package delivers £15 billion worth of support measures to assist the most vulnerable with rising energy bills, including charges incurred by medical equipment and devices as part of home care.
Certain specialised NHS England services, such as home Haemodialysis, do include financial support to offset energy costs sustained from running medical equipment at home.
The Government will continue to closely monitor the situation and stands ready to take further steps if needed.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will make an estimate of the number of whistleblowing incidents in the NHS in each of the past five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the total amount spent by NHS trusts (a) on employment tribunals and (b) compensation awards to people found to have been unfairly dismissed after whistleblowing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not held centrally. National Health Service organisations are independent employers and have their own policies and procedures for disciplinary and hearings aligned to general employment law and good human resource practice. Any such cases are a private legal matter between the employer and employee.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to inform local authorities of their provisional public health grant budgets for 2023-24.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We will announce the 2023/24 Public Health Grant allocations to local authorities shortly.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many adults in the UK have ASD without intellectual capability.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 17 October 2022 to Question 59928 on Surgery: Waiting Lists, if he will make an estimate of the number of patients who were removed from waiting lists due to patients being diagnosed with other conditions in the last 12 months; and if he will make an assessment of the impact of this approach on transparency in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific estimate has been made as the information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of schools' current ability to make referrals to CAMHS services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has made no such assessment. However, the Department for Education undertakes and publishes pupil, parent, and teacher omnibus surveys which include a range of questions on their perception of mental health and wellbeing support and promotion in school. This supports our understanding of, amongst other areas, education staff’s perceived confidence in identifying and responding to mental health issues, including knowing when and how to make referrals to external, specialist support services.
We are committed to equipping more education staff with the knowledge and skills to effectively identify and respond to mental health issues, and feel confident when doing so, and that is why we are taking immediate action to build schools’ capability and capacity in this area. Over a third of state schools and colleges have so far claimed a senior mental health lead training grant, backed by £9.5 million in year 2021/22, and a further £10 million this financial year. This is sufficient to enable up to two thirds of state schools and colleges to access training by April 2023. The training will help leads to make or support effective referrals to NHS children and young people’s mental health services, or other services as appropriate.
In addition to providing advice to school and college staff, established mental health support teams connect with local children and young people’s mental health services and liaise with external specialist services. This includes an integrated referral system with community and specialist services to facilitate access to appropriate support.