Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the introduction of a central contract for the Nursery Milk Scheme on the price of school milk supplied to over-fives.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Nursery Milk Scheme supplies nursery milk to over 48,000 settings annually including local authority and private nurseries and independent child-minders. A small minority of these settings also receive deliveries of school milk.
Proposals for modernising the nursery Milk Scheme were consulted upon by the Department of Health in 2012 and the Government response, published in March this year, set out plans for procurement of a direct supply Nursery Milk Scheme.
Plans for implementing the modernised Nursery Milk Scheme have been put together, discussed, and assessed between Government officials via a cross Government Nursery Milk Scheme Task and Finish Group which includes representatives from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who are responsible for the School Milk Scheme .
The Department has also held six separate supplier days as part of putting together the invitation to tender documents for the modernised Nursery Milk Scheme. These presented an opportunity for officials to discuss proposals for the Scheme with companies from the dairy and milk delivery sectors. These discussions included open forum question and answer sessions between company representatives and officials from the Department of Health and, also, one to one sessions between individual companies and Departmental officials. Some of these discussions included references to milk deliveries for the over 5s School milk scheme.
The specific issue of School milk deliveries to the over 5s was also mentioned in discussions between Departmental officials and a group of key market representatives invited to a meeting organised by Dairy UK in April 2014.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many visits were made by Ministers of his Department to Torbay constituency in the 12 months to 14 October 2014; whom the invitation for each such visit was issued by; and what the cost to the public purse was of each such visit.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The following visits were made to the Torbay Borough Constituency in the year since 14 October 2013 alongside the direct cost of the minister’s attendance at the visit:
Date Minister Visit Location Cost
14 November 2013 Earl Howe Watcombe Children's Centre* -
15 November 2013 Earl Howe Torbay and Paignton Hospitals, £201.14
Torbay*
* These were a series of visits which were organised to coincide with the minister attending a meeting in the South-West region; therefore we have provided an overall cost of the three visits.
Invitations to undertake visits can come from a multiple range of sources and organisations or can be organised proactively as a result of Ministers being made aware of best practice and wanting to familiarise him/herself with it in more detail.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were (a) diagnosed with and (b) living with diabetes in (i) Torbay constituency and (ii) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Public Health England do not routinely present diabetes data by parliamentary constituency. It has produced estimates of the total number of adults with diabetes (diagnosed and undiagnosed). Across England it was estmated that there were 3,141,622 adults with diabetes (diagnosed and undiagnosed) in 2012. The estimates for 2013 and 2014 were 3,211,368 and 3,279,925 respectively. It was estimated that in Torbay Unitary Authority the total number of adults with diabetes (diagnosed and undiagnosed) was 9,589 in 2012, 9,773 in 2013 and 9,947 in 2014.
The Quality and Outcomes Framework provides data on the total number of adults aged 17 years and older who have diagnosed diabetes. This showed that in 2012 there were 2,566,436 adults with diagnosed diabetes in England. By 2013 this had increased to 2,703,044. It is not possible to provide local data for consistent areas for recent years. In 2013 there were 14,485 adults with diagnosed diabetes in South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group. However, this covers a larger area than Torbay Unitary Authority.
The National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network will be publishing cardiovascular disease profiles by clinical commissioning group in August 2014 which will include a chapter about diabetes. These will bring together a number of key indicators about diabetes.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will re-establish the NHS Diabetes website.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS Improving Quality has taken over the functions of NHS Diabetes and has no plans to establish a diabetes specific website. However, the archived NHS Diabetes website can still be viewed.
NHS Improving Quality has a number of programmes of work underway to reduce premature mortality from diabetes and improve the care of people with diabetes including:
- Piloting new pathways of care to detect and manage asymptomatic coronary heart disease in patient groups with diabetic foot disease. The aim is to reduce premature mortality in this group of patients by 600 lives per year from 2015-16;
- Supporting the NHS Health Check programme's ambition to achieve a 66% uptake rate within the eligible population for 2014-15. A key component of these checks is looking for risk factors for diabetes;
- Supporting the implementation of the Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Strategy;
- Working to achieve patient centred, co-ordinated services for people living with long term conditions, including diabetes; and
- Providing signposting and links to useful improvement resources relating to diabetes.
More information on this work can be found on the NHS Improving Quality website at:
www.nhsiq.nhs.uk
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to impose a duty on local authorities to commission follow-up services to the NHS Health Check.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Government has no plans to mandate local authorities to commission follow-up services following an NHS Health Check. It is for local authorities, supported by Public Health England, to work closely with their partners across the health care system, including through Health and wellbeing Boards, to ensure the different elements of the programme, including follow-up services link together. The Department, jointly with Public Health England, have issued guidance to support local authorities in delivering NHS Health Checks, including follow up services. NHS England is also producing an action plan to improve patient management following an NHS Health Check by March 2015.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to provide a separate follow-up service to the NHS Heath Check Programme.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Government has no plans to mandate local authorities to commission follow-up services following an NHS Health Check. It is for local authorities, supported by Public Health England, to work closely with their partners across the health care system, including through Health and wellbeing Boards, to ensure the different elements of the programme, including follow-up services link together. The Department, jointly with Public Health England, have issued guidance to support local authorities in delivering NHS Health Checks, including follow up services. NHS England is also producing an action plan to improve patient management following an NHS Health Check by March 2015.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to include a diabetes-related indicator in the Health Premium Incentive scheme; if he will consult the diabetes community on the design of that scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The independent advisory group, the Health Premium Incentive Advisory Group (HPIAG), was set up as a sub-group of the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation to advise Ministers on which indicators from the Public Health Outcome Framework (PHOF) would be suitable for inclusion in the Health Premium Incentive Scheme (HPIS). HPIAG developed a list of technical criteria to guide this assessment and reviewed all the indicators in the PHOF, including those indicators relevant to diabetes, against these criteria. HPIAG concluded that the diabetes related indicators did not meet the criteria and so would not be appropriate for inclusion in the HPIS. HPIAG's report showing which indicator met the criteria has been placed in the Library and can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/groups/health-premium-incentive-advisory-group
The PHOF itself was subject to a full public consultation and the report of PHOF consultation has been placed in the library and can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-health-outcomes-framework
Ministers are currently considering options for introducing the scheme.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress the Care Quality Commission has made in its thematic data review of diabetes care; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services.
The CQC has provided the following information.
The CQC has completed its thematic data review of diabetes care. A summary report which includes findings of the CQC's work and that of others has been shared with the Diabetes Thematic Review External Advisory Group that is supporting the project.
The CQC's plan is to publish the key national findings from this work as a short standalone report this summer.
Results from the data review will be used to inform the CQC's regular inspection regimes. The second phase will begin later in 2014 and will involve inspection activities and bespoke information gathering to follow up on the findings from the data review. It will also explore at the local level the causes behind variations in care and outcomes for different people.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the Care Quality Commission plans to publish its thematic data review of diabetes care.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services.
The CQC has provided the following information.
The CQC has completed its thematic data review of diabetes care. A summary report which includes findings of the CQC's work and that of others has been shared with the Diabetes Thematic Review External Advisory Group that is supporting the project.
The CQC's plan is to publish the key national findings from this work as a short standalone report this summer.
Results from the data review will be used to inform the CQC's regular inspection regimes. The second phase will begin later in 2014 and will involve inspection activities and bespoke information gathering to follow up on the findings from the data review. It will also explore at the local level the causes behind variations in care and outcomes for different people.
Asked by: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how the Care Quality Commission plans to use the findings from its thematic data review of diabetes care.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services.
The CQC has provided the following information.
The CQC has completed its thematic data review of diabetes care. A summary report which includes findings of the CQC's work and that of others has been shared with the Diabetes Thematic Review External Advisory Group that is supporting the project.
The CQC's plan is to publish the key national findings from this work as a short standalone report this summer.
Results from the data review will be used to inform the CQC's regular inspection regimes. The second phase will begin later in 2014 and will involve inspection activities and bespoke information gathering to follow up on the findings from the data review. It will also explore at the local level the causes behind variations in care and outcomes for different people.