Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure all Type 2 diabetics have access to a glucose monitoring blood test every three months as standard.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning diabetes services for their local populations. They are also expected to take National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines into consideration when making their decisions.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the identification of maternal mental health problems during maternal postnatal checks.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not made any such assessment.
NHS England is commissioning further work to establish a clearer picture of current practice.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the role of GPs in identifying and treating perinatal mental health problems in mothers.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not made any such assessment.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 improve outcomes for children by identifying and supporting new mothers with mental health problems.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
This Government is committed to preventing mental illness and improving health outcomes for new parents and their children. The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment for a further 24,000 women to be able to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023/24, building on the additional 30,000 women who will access these services each year by 2020/21 under pre-existing plans.
From April 2019, new and expectant parents are able to access specialist perinatal mental health community services across England. Specialist care will also be available from preconception to 24 months after birth, which will provide an extra year of support (care is currently provided from preconception to 12 months after birth).
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps has he taken to ensure that medicines developed from public research are (a) accessible and (b) affordable.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) provides support for the development of new drugs, medical devices, diagnostics and treatments, primarily through its investment in research infrastructure in the National Health Service and through a range of research funding programmes. NIHR-supported research supports the early translational and clinical development of new medicines and generates high quality evidence which is made available to inform decisions about the NHS and patients on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of medicines, including through National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance.
NICE technology appraisal guidance, and the associated funding requirement, play an important role in ensuring that patients have access to cost-effective new medicines, including medicines developed from public research. NICE assesses important new medicines through a robust evaluation process.
The Accelerated Access Review made recommendations to get transformative drugs and treatments to patients faster, while ensuring that the NHS gets value for money and remains at the forefront of innovation.
We have also formed the Accelerated Access Collaborative to accelerate patient access to high performing innovations that meet NHS needs.
The NHS is required by law to ensure that medicines recommended by NICE are routinely funded within three months, ensuring patient access to cost-effective medicines in England. There is no explicit link between the terms of NIHR research grants and the price the NHS pays for medicines.
The Department ensures that branded medicines remain affordable to the NHS through two pricing schemes. One is the 2019 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (2019 Voluntary Scheme) and the other is the statutory scheme set out in legislation.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure the safety of people procuring services of self-employed carers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Many people procure the services of self-employed carers via their social care personal budget. A personal budget is an agreed amount of money allocated by a local authority to an individual receiving care, following an assessment of their care and support need.
Personal budgets enable individuals to purchase care services from a provider of their choice, in line with their agreed care plan. This may include employing self-employed carers such as personal assistants. Regulations do not require personal assistants to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. Local authorities are required to provide the level of support the individual wants when purchasing any care.
There is much advice and published guidance already available to support individuals when making decisions on procuring services of self-employed carers; for example, encouraging individuals who employ self-employed carers to consider asking for Disclosure and Barring Service checks, prior to employment. We have also commissioned Skills for Care and Think Local Act Personal to produce a range of additional support materials for those requiring care.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will take steps to ensure that all people providing care can be subject to regulation and an enhanced DBS check.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
All people providing care remain subject to employer checks and controls and employers in the health and care sector must satisfy certain legal duties regarding the skills and competence of their staff. Disclosure and Barring Service checks (DBS checks) are only one means of providing employers with the necessary assurances about a workers’ suitability for a particular role. Employers are legally required to ensure that all workers in a regulated activity with adults and/or children are subject to a relevant enhanced DBS check with a view to preventing people from entering the workforce and undertaking a role from which they are barred from engaging in.
The Government is committed to a proportionate system of safeguards for the professionals who work in the health and care system. We are very clear that statutory professional regulation should only be used in cases where the risks to the public cannot be mitigated in other ways. We have no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of a national registration and accreditation system for care workers in England at this time.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will commit to fully funding the Workforce Implementation Plan to tackle shortages in the breast cancer workforce.
Answered by Steve Brine
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding, working closely with Sir David Behan, to lead a number of programmes to engage with key National Health Service interests to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan. These programmes will consider detailed proposals to grow the workforce rapidly, including the breast cancer workforce, consider additional staff and skills required, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for NHS staff.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to exempt people with diagnosed long-term mental health illnesses from prescription charges.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department has no current plans to amend the list of medical conditions that provide exemption from National Health Service prescription charges, as extensive arrangements are in place to ensure that people, including those with mental health illnesses, can access affordable prescriptions.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has for the future roll-out of the National Bereavement Care Pathway; and whether he plans to expand that roll-out.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
All bereaved parents, following baby loss, should be offered the same high standard of care and support in an appropriate environment. The Government committed full funding of over £100,000 for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity (Sands) to continue the roll-out of the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) in 2018/19. This builds upon £50,000 of start-up funding.
This funding has enabled Sands to actively support 32 NHS trusts and foundation trusts to implement the NBCP over the past two years. An evaluation of Wave 1 implementation found that 94% of parents who received bereavement care in the period the NBCP was used felt that all staff could provide a consistently high level of care and 98% felt they were treated with respect. We would encourage all services caring for parents who experience baby loss to adopt the NBCP. Care providers can access all of the NBCP standards, pathway materials and training resources via the following link:
The Department’s Business Planning process takes place annually. Expenditure, including any awards made through grant funding, cannot be confirmed until the Business Planning process has been concluded and budgets for the relevant financial year approved.