Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193134 on Mental Health Services: Children and Young People, when she plans that the national access and waiting times standards for these services in England will be (a) defined and (b) set.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England plans to publish data on community mental health longest waits in autumn 2023 using their proxy measure of how long to receive one or more contacts for children and young people, or two or more contacts for adults. NHS England plans to publish the full community mental health waiting times proposed in spring 2024. This will start to move away from only measuring contacts and will broaden focus on meaningful activities and improved outcomes.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193133 on Mental Health Services: Further Education and Schools, what his Department's definition is of a mental health team in (a) schools and (b) colleges.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Mental Health Support Teams have three core functions: to deliver evidence-based interventions for mild-to-moderate mental health issues; support the senior mental health lead (where established) in each school or college to introduce or develop whole school or college approach; and give timely advice to school and college staff and liaise with external specialist service to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2023 to Question 192573 on Health Services: Waiting Lists, what the average waiting list time for specialist clinical (a) care and (b) surgery was in (i) February, (ii) April and (iii) June 2023 for people in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
As detailed in the answer to Question 192573, this data is not available in the format requested for a breakdown between specialist clinical care and surgery. The average waiting time nationally for referral to treatment for elective care was 14.5 weeks in February 2023 and 13.8 weeks in April 2023. Official NHS England figures for this statistic in June 2023 are not yet available, however the most recent published statistic for May 2023 was 14.1 weeks on average. These figures relate to the average time a patient is still waiting for their treatment to begin, at the end of the given month.
Average waiting times are not available per constituency. However, as of 28 May, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had 41,375 people waiting for treatment, with over 58% waiting under 18 weeks.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 are in (a) schools and (b) colleges, broken down by region.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Department for Education analysis shows that 398 mental health support teams are now operational, covering 3.4 million pupils and learners in England in 6,800 schools and colleges. A further 100 teams are in training, taking the total number of operational teams to approximately 500 by spring 2024.
The current number of such teams in schools and colleges broken down by type of educational setting and by region is not available.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2023 to Question 191564 on Mental Health Services: Children and Young People, what the average waiting time is for a young person to access mental health services in Wirral South constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This information is not collected centrally at present as national access and waiting times standards for these services in England has not yet been defined or set.
We are working with NHS England on the introduction of new waiting time standards for both children and young people’s community-based mental health services and urgent referrals across all ages to community-based mental health crisis services, as part of its clinically-led review of National Health Service access standards. A date for their introduction has not yet been set.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average retention rate for nursing students in the North West was as of 30 June 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Wirral South constituency in June 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS has published a Long Term Workforce Plan which outlines the steps the Government has taken to support the recruitment and retention of mental health specialists, including in Wirral South.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to increase the (a) recruitment to and (b) retention of healthcare professionals in the NHS in June 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the NHS People Plan and the NHS People Promise set out a comprehensive range of actions to improve staff retention. They provide a strong focus on creating a more modern, compassionate and inclusive National Health Service culture by strengthening health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and flexible working. In addition, the NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well.
Specifically, June 2023 saw a number of actions to improve recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals in the NHS.
NHS England held several events, including: seven regional communities of practice workshops to support recruitment and retention of early career nurses, midwives and Allied Health Professionals; an event focused on international recruits; and a series of roundtables with representatives from the 23 retention exemplar trusts, which are working to implement the People Promise. These events focused on sharing best practice on strategies to improve recruitment and retention and supporting staff in career development.
Additionally, NHS England launched the ‘Retaining doctors in late-stage career guidance’ in collaboration with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/retaining-doctors-in-late-stage-career-guidance/
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 intensive care unit workers (a) with their mental health and (b) generally.
Answered by Will Quince
It is a priority for the Government to support the health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff.
NHS planning guidance for 2023/24 emphasises the need to support staff, asking systems to refresh their workforce plans to improve staff experience and retention through a systematic focus on all elements of the NHS People Promise.
NHS England have developed a range of health and wellbeing initiatives which include a wellbeing guardian role, a focus on healthy working environments, empowering line managers to hold meaningful conversations with staff to discuss their wellbeing, and a comprehensive emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support package.
NHS staff can also access NHS Practitioner Health, a national support service for staff with more complex mental health needs brought about by serious issues such as trauma or addiction.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out how we will improve culture, leadership, wellbeing and staff retention over the next 15 years. The plan focuses on implementing actions from the NHS People Plan, improving flexible working opportunities and supporting the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of doctors who have revoked their medical register status since December 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold this data centrally. The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of all medical doctors practising in the United Kingdom which sets and enforces the standards all doctors must adhere to. The GMC is responsible for operational matters, including holding data on the number of doctors on the medical register, as well as the number of doctors who have revoked their status on the medical register.