Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will set clear and measurable targets to help tackle socio-economic and ethnic disparities in the rates of (a) neonatal death, (b) brain injury and (c) pre-term birth.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all women and babies received safe, personalised, equitable, and compassionate care. I am urgently considering the immediate action needed across maternity and neonatal services to improve outcomes and address the stark inequalities that persist for women and babies across ethnicity and deprivation, including what targets are needed. This includes consideration of what comes beyond the national maternity safety ambition, ensuring that we take an evidence-based approach, and that any targets set are women and baby-centred and focused on tackling inequalities.
There has been some good progress to date. As part of NHS England’s three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, all trusts are rolling out version three of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, which provides maternity units with guidance and interventions to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, and includes initiatives to reduce inequalities. All Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems have published Equity and Equality actions plans to tackle inequalities for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas.
The Government is currently piloting a training programme to help avoid brain injury in childbirth, and to address variation and improve safety for mothers and their babies. If successful, national rollout is expected to commence next year.
The Department’s officials work closely with NHS England and maternity and neonatal sector partners to monitor inequalities in perinatal outcomes by ethnicity and deprivation, including through the published Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK reports.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 access to healthcare for trans people.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is committed to ensuring that trans people receive the care and support they need when accessing National Health Services. Regarding Children and Young People’s Gender Services, the government and NHS England have committed to implementing all of the recommendations of the Cass Review.
The independent Darzi investigation found that NHS waiting times have surged, have become normalised across the NHS, and as a result public satisfaction has declined. The Cass review also noted the unacceptable waiting times across Children and Young People’s Gender Services. The government and NHS England are working to improve Children and Young People’s Gender Services in a variety of ways, including expanding the number of services offered. The Government and NHS England are committed to implementing the recommendations from the Cass Review to ensure children and young people with gender incongruence get the holistic care they need. In line with NHS England’s ambitious two-year implementation plan, three new services in the North-West, London, and South West have now opened. A fourth service in the East of England will open in spring of next year. NHS England is advancing towards meeting its commitment for there to be a specialist children’s gender service in every region by 2026.
NHS England has also increased the number of adult Gender Dysphoria Clinics in England from seven to 12, with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. The rollout of these new clinics is helping to tackle long waiting times, which had increased due to a shortage of specialist clinical staff to meet the rapidly rising demand. NHS England is currently undertaking a review of the Adult Gender Services which will examine the model of care and operating procedures of each service, with the aim of producing an updated service specification.
NHS England has also increased capacity by recruiting new staff and enabling existing staff to complete further training to expand their role, across services. NHS England is currently undertaking a review of adult gender services, chaired by Dr David Levy. The review will examine the model of care and operating procedures of each service, and will carefully consider experiences, feedback, and outcomes from clinicians and patients, with the aim of producing an updated service specification.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 that children and young people diagnosed with cancer receive adequate mental health support.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children and young people.
In Spring 2024, the Department ran workshops with colleagues in the health system which identified a range of options to improve outcomes for this group. We are committed to further exploring these areas, including by considering the wider support available to children and young people with cancer and their families.
We are in the process of considering next steps for taking forward this important area of work and will share further information in due course.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 help improve cancer outcomes among children and young people.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children and young people.
In Spring 2024, the Department ran workshops with colleagues in the health system which identified a range of options to improve outcomes for this group. We are committed to further exploring these areas, including by considering the wider support available to children and young people with cancer and their families.
We are in the process of considering next steps for taking forward this important area of work and will share further information in due course.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 the priorities of (a) children and (b) young people with cancer are included in the ten-year plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children, teenagers, and young adults.
The Department is taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment, across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 scans, appointments, and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for general practitioners on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.
To support timely investigation after referral, we are working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer.
Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS highlighted that there is more to be done to increase the speed at which patients are diagnosed with and treated for cancer. His report will inform our 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.
On 21 October 2024, the Department launched a national engagement exercise to inform the plan. We encourage people and organisations who would like to share their views on the priorities of children and young people with cancer to do so. People can share their views at the following link:
Following the engagement exercise, the Department will carefully consider how the priorities of this group should be reflected in the plan and any subsequent work.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 reduce waiting times for the (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of cancer in (i) teenagers and (ii) young adults.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children, teenagers, and young adults.
The Department is taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment, across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 scans, appointments, and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for general practitioners on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.
To support timely investigation after referral, we are working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer.
Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS highlighted that there is more to be done to increase the speed at which patients are diagnosed with and treated for cancer. His report will inform our 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.
On 21 October 2024, the Department launched a national engagement exercise to inform the plan. We encourage people and organisations who would like to share their views on the priorities of children and young people with cancer to do so. People can share their views at the following link:
Following the engagement exercise, the Department will carefully consider how the priorities of this group should be reflected in the plan and any subsequent work.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 reduce waiting times for children's mental health services in Sheffield Central constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is unacceptable that too many children and young people, including in the Sheffield Central constituency, are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are far too long.
The Department is working across Government to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges.
Alongside this we are working towards rolling out Young Futures hubs in every community and working with colleagues at the Department for Education and NHS England to consider options to deliver our commitment to recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across both adult, and children and young people’s mental health services.
It will be important that these commitments can provide appropriate support for children and young people with a range of mental health needs.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 reduce waiting times at Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Gender Identity Clinic in Sheffield is one of seven nationally commissioned adult Gender Dysphoria clinics in England. To reduce wait times, NHS England has expanded the number of clinical and administrative posts available within the Sheffield Clinic, in addition to improving the training and support offered to primary care to support hormone prescribing. Those who are on the waiting list are also supported by dedicated Peer Support Workers.
NHS England is committed to reducing wait times across all gender services. Since July 2020, NHS England has increased clinical capacity with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics. The rollout of these new clinics is helping to tackle long waiting times, which had increased due to a shortage of specialist clinical staff to meet the rapidly rising demand.
NHS England is currently undertaking a review of adult gender services, chaired by Dr David Levy. The review will examine the model of care and operating procedures of each service, and will carefully consider experiences, feedback, and outcomes from clinicians and patients, with the aim of producing an updated service specification
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 bring forward legislative proposals to update the Mental Health Act 1983.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Mental Health Bill announced in the King’s Speech will deliver the Government’s commitment to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983. The bill will be published when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 tackle potential health inequalities faced by trans people.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government is committed to building a fairer Britain by tackling the structural inequalities that contribute to poor health, particularly for disadvantaged groups. We are dedicated to ensuring that people live well for longer, spending less time in ill health, regardless of where they are born or their financial circumstances.
Our Health Mission in England will focus on addressing the social determinants of health, with the goal of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions.
The Government is committed to ensuring trans people receive the care and support they need when accessing National Health Services. NHS England’s ambitious two-year action plan sets out how it will implement recommendations from the Cass Review and continue to improve gender services, helping to tackle waiting lists, whilst ensuring safe and holistic care.