Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he has made an assessment of the (a) value and (b) contribution of the not-for-profit adult social care sector to adult social care delivery.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the vital role and value of not-for-profit providers in delivering adult social care. As of November 2025, 8.1% of Care Quality Commission regulated social care organisation locations are registered as charities.
Local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people under the Care Act 2014. Local authorities are encouraged to commission a range of different approaches to services to ensure people have a genuine choice. This includes supporting and commissioning different types of service provider organisations, including third sector, voluntary, and community-based organisations.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
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 performance of the not-for-profit adult social care sector in (a) ratings achieved through CQC inspections and (b) workforce (i) pay and (ii) turnover reported by the Skills for Care adult social care workforce dataset.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the role and value that not-for-profit providers play in delivering adult social care (ASC). As of November 2025, 8.1% of Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulated social care organisation locations are providers with a charity number. Of these locations, 89.1% are rated “Good” or “Outstanding” compared with 83.8% of other providers, of which the vast majority are for-profit. Overall, 84.3% of ASC providers are rated “Good” or “Outstanding”.
Filled posts working for independent sector employers cannot be accurately split into “private” and “voluntary”, as this information is not reported by the CQC. Estimates from the ASC workforce dataset suggests that approximately 74%, or 1,000,000, of the filled posts working for independent sector employers were in private sector establishments, which is approximately 63% of all posts, and 26%, or 345,000, were filled posts in voluntary/charity sector establishments, which is approximately 22% of all posts.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research funded Adult Social Care Research Unit is researching the impact of provider ownership type, including not-for-profit status, on care outcomes and workforce outcomes, including pay and turnover. The project will conclude in June 2026.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Mental Health Support Teams there were in (a) Aldershot constituency, (b) Hampshire and (c) London in each year since 2010.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the data requested at a constituency level. Nationally, the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) pilot programme commenced in 2018. The number of MHSTs in each integrated care board, from 2018, is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/trailblazers/
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of people who were diagnosed with diabetes in Aldershot constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The following table shows the number of people that were newly diagnosed with diabetes in the Aldershot constituency, in each of the calendar years from 2018 to 2022, broken down by diabetes type:
Year of diagnosis | Number of people newly diagnosed with diabetes | ||
Type 1 | Type 2 and other | All diabetes types | |
2018 | 15 | 540 | 555 |
2019 | 15 | 590 | 605 |
2020 | 10 | 405 | 415 |
2021 | 15 | 450 | 465 |
2022 | 5 | 505 | 510 |
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To fix the chronic workforce shortages in the mental health workforce we plan to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services, to reduce waiting times and provide faster treatment, across all areas of England, including the Aldershot constituency.
We are working to develop a plan to deliver this expansion of the mental health workforce, including where they should be deployed to achieve maximum effect. NHS England is also working to improve retention through clearer career progression pathways.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of midwives in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will make sure the National Health Service has the staff it needs, to be there for all of us when we need it, and will get the staff to the places where patients and the NHS need them. This will not only benefit the Aldershot constituency, but the whole of the NHS in England.
Recruitment decisions do not sit with the Government but instead are the responsibility of the local employers, who are best placed to understand the diverse needs of their communities. They subsequently manage their own recruitment to ensure they have the right number of staff, with the right skill mix, to provide the safe and effective care that their patients need. Each trust has a retention midwife who focuses on retention and providing pastoral support to midwives as they consider their future options in and outside of the NHS.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, as well as taking pressure off those currently working in the system. The inclusion of newly qualified GPs into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme will also support the recruitment of GPs.
The NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board, which includes Aldershot, advises it is committed to supporting, developing, and retaining its workforce, and that it offers a full and varied training and development offer to clinical staff. This includes the national New GP Fellowship programme, which currently has 40 newly qualified GPs across the Frimley system, two of whom are from Aldershot. The scheme helps the transition into GP, post qualification. Other initiatives include mentoring and national Continuing Professional Development funding for primary care staff.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
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 enable GP surgeries to provide additional services in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practices are able to provide Directed Enhanced Services and Enhanced Services by opting in, and will receive payment for these services separately to global sum payments. As commissioners of primary care, integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning Local Enhanced Services, which are not agreed nationally and can vary in scope and funding to fit local needs.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average payments to community pharmacies were in Aldershot constituency in (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The average payments by the NHS Business Services Authority to community pharmacies in the Aldershot constituency were: £68,547.19 per pharmacy per month in 2021/22, or £822,566.32 per pharmacy for 12 months; and £77,398.58 per pharmacy per month in 2022/23, or £928,782.96 per pharmacy for 12 months.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of social care capacity in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In performing that duty, a local authority must have regard to the need to ensure that it is aware of current and likely future demand for such services, and to consider how providers might meet that demand.
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund includes grant conditions which require each local authority to submit an adult social care capacity plan. These were submitted to the Department in June 2024. The hon. Member's local authority, Aldershot, submitted their 2024/25 capacity plan, which is currently undergoing processing and quality assurance.