Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
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 encourage more women to attend cervical screening.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England is working to raise awareness of this disease and encourage women to attend cervical screening through the national ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaigns, which have been run in partnership with Cancer Research UK since 2011.
PHE is in the process of developing a new campaign that will promote the uptake of cervical screening. The campaign is scheduled to launch early in March.
NHS England is also investing in initiatives to help ensure equality of access to screening and is investing more than £258 million this year to improve access to general practice and more than half the country is benefitting from improved access to all routine appointments (including cervical screening), at evening and/or weekends.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which of NHS England’s 25 trailblazer areas on transforming children and young people’s mental health include speech and language therapists.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
All 25 trailblazer sites will have new Mental Health Support Teams working in and near schools and colleges to support children and young people with mild to moderate mental health conditions.
Mental Health Support Teams will work in an integrated way with existing professionals including speech and language therapists, school counsellors, nurses, and the voluntary sector to treat those with mild to moderate mental health issues in school and will help children and young people with more severe needs to access the right support and provide a link to specialist NHS services.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the training for designated senior leads for mental health includes training in awareness of speech, language and communication needs and their links to mental health.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The role of the Designated Senior Leads for Mental Health in schools will be to take a strategic overview of a school or college’s approach to children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The Department is currently working towards a procurement of training for Designated Senior Leads, to be provided from the 2019/20 academic year. This will set out the broad areas that the training should cover to enable leads to put in place whole school approaches that incorporate the promotion of good mental wellbeing and resilience amongst pupils and staff. Where a school puts a lead in place, their role should complement existing statutory roles, including the Special Educational Needs coordinator to ensure that all pupils get the right support to meet their needs.
To increase support, the Government is also funding new Mental Health Support Teams working in or near schools. The teams will include a new trained workforce which can provide treatment and support to help reduce mental health problems worsening or developing in the first place. These new teams will be tested in ‘trailblazer’ areas from January 2019.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to (a) identify and (b) tackle children’s communication difficulties under its Children in Need policy.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government is committed to ensuring that children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) get the support they need to lead safe, fulfilling lives and to reach their potential.
The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice makes clear that local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and relevant others are responsible for commissioning specialist support locally using their high needs funding budgets. This includes support for SLCN. We have given an additional £250 million to high needs funding across 2018-19 and 2019-20 to help them fulfil these duties, on top of the £6 billion already provided for the high needs budget. Local authorities are required to develop and publish their local SEND offer based on an analysis of local need and we expect details of services for SLCN, including how they can be accessed, to be included.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has set out his ambition to halve the 28% of children who finish their reception year without the early communication and reading skills they need to thrive by 2028. The Department for Education is working with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to support health visitors and early years practitioners to identify and support children’s early SLCN. We are investing £26 million to set up a network of English hubs, £20 million to provide professional development for early years practitioners, and £7.5 million to understand what works in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation. We are investing £6.5 million in voluntary and charity sector grants supporting the home learning environment.
Where children are at risk of harm, it is particularly important that they are supported to communicate their needs. The statutory guidance 'Working together to safeguard children' (2018) is clear that special provision should be put in place to support dialogue with children who have communication difficulties. This child-centred approach is supported by the Children Act (1989) and emphasised further in the interim findings of the children in need review.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the implications are for his policies of the conclusion in the paper entitled, Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2017, published by NHS Digital in November 2018 that children with a mental disorder were five times more likely to have speech or language problems.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
On 20 December 2018, we announced the first wave of 25 trailblazer sites that will test the plans set out in ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper’, published in December 2017. This set out the Government’s intention to improve provision of support through its three key proposals: creating new Mental Health Support Teams working in and near schools and colleges to support children and young people with mild to moderate mental health conditions; piloting a four-week waiting time for access to specialist National Health Service children’s mental health services; and training Designated Senior Leads in mental health in schools and colleges.
Mental Health Support Teams will build on support already in place and work in an integrated way with other professionals such as speech and language therapists, including in support of delivering schools responsibilities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Our aim is to improve earlier identification of mental health needs, including through knowledge of the links between mental health and others such as speech, language and communication needs, to increase access to services and to provide more comprehensive support for the full range of needs of children and young people.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allow speech and language therapists to train as approved mental capacity professionals.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We envisage that speech and language therapists will play a vital role in the new system of the Liberty Protection Safeguards, particularly in circumstances when the person is non-verbal or has communication support needs. We expect speech and language therapists would be consulted in appropriate cases in order to ascertain the wishes and feelings of the cared-for person.
We will use the statutory Code of Practice to describe the detail of when the involvement of Speech and Language Therapists can help and support the Liberty Protection Safeguards process. We will also use the statutory Code of Practice to detail the professionals who can become Approved Mental Capacity Professionals.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on agricultural policy after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We continue to have regular conversations with ministerial colleagues across Government on all aspects of exiting the EU, including agricultural policy.
The Agriculture Bill is part of the Government’s programme of critical legislation to deliver a smooth Exit from the European Union and seize the opportunities of a green Brexit. It will allow us to break from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and free farmers to continue producing world-class produce.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure ongoing funding for the distribution of British films abroad after the cessation of the Creative Europe funding scheme in 2020.
Answered by Margot James
As the Prime Minister stated in her Mansion House speech, the UK is committed to continuing cultural collaboration between the UK and EU. Where possible, the UK will continue to participate in EU programmes where there is mutual benefit to the UK and the EU, ultimately, this will be determined as part of the future partnership negotiations between the UK and the EU. The British Film Institute (BFI) and its partners offer extensive support to the film industry - from development and skills to distribution and audiences - and this will continue independently of Creative Europe.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has taken steps to (a) ensure that all practitioners who work in the youth justice system are trained in recognising and responding appropriately to communication needs and (b) develop a referral pathway for youth offenders to access speech and language therapy.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Young people with speech and language difficulties are particularly vulnerable, and we are seeking to ensure that those who work with children and young people in areas with a high prevalence of speech, language and communication needs, are trained in recognising and responding appropriately to these needs. We offered free, national training for Youth Justice professionals over the last three years, supporting them to identify children’s special educational and disability needs and to deliver effective engagement and positive long-term outcomes.
To ensure robust referral pathways throughout the youth justice system, the YJB have developed a screening tool which provides a holistic assessment and intervention plan that can be used in a variety of settings. In custody, NHS England screen and assess every child for neurodisabilities using the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool (CHAT), and put in place an individual care plan. Education providers are also required to assess educational needs and provide appropriate support.
Asked by: Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS Clinical Commissioners on ensuring that speech and language therapy service specifications (a) require those services to have a pathway for when a child or young person is not brought to an appointment, (b) appropriately resource those services to provide support in settings that meet the needs of the child or young people and their parent and carer and (c) monitor and report on the number of children and young people who are discharged from those services because they did not attend an appointment.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
There have been no discussions with NHS Clinical Commissioners concerning speech and language therapy service specifications. Clinical commissioning groups have local responsibility for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, drawing on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance to agree the specifications for communication support. The protection and safeguarding of children and young people from harm is of paramount importance to all parts for the health care system. All providers should have their own governance arrangements in place for responding to non-attendance at appointments.