Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether officials in her Department have had discussions with (a) the British Dietetic Association and (b) other relevant stakeholders on the potential extension of independent prescribing responsibilities to dietitians.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.
The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.
The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities of (a) dietitians and (b) other allied health professionals are regularly (i) reviewed and (ii) updated to reflect potential (A) advances in healthcare and (B) patient needs.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.
The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.
The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of commissioning research on the potential impact on patient care of granting independent prescribing responsibilities to dietitians.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.
The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.
The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending independent prescribing responsibilities to dietitians.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.
The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.
The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to restore the availability of data on Healthy Start uptake on the Healthy Start website.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Work and Pensions has identified an error in their data that means that the data published for Healthy Start uptake from July 2023 onwards was incorrect. It is important to state that the data used to calculate the uptake rate is not used as part of the live check to determine eligibility for individual applicants to Healthy Start, and no individual applicants or beneficiaries have been impacted, The Department for Work and Pensions has fixed the issue, and additional checks have been added to the process to ensure the issue does not occur in the future.
The incorrect data has been removed from the NHS Healthy Start website by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who run the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. Corrected and updated data for March 2024 will be published by the NHS BSA shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to restore the availability of data on the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers on the Healthy Start website.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Work and Pensions has identified an error in their data that means that the data published for Healthy Start uptake from July 2023 onwards was incorrect. It is important to state that the data used to calculate the uptake rate is not used as part of the live check to determine eligibility for individual applicants to Healthy Start, and no individual applicants or beneficiaries have been impacted, The Department for Work and Pensions has fixed the issue, and additional checks have been added to the process to ensure the issue does not occur in the future.
The incorrect data has been removed from the NHS Healthy Start website by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who run the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. Corrected and updated data for March 2024 will be published by the NHS BSA shortly.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 5 July 2018 to Question 158337, on Social Services: Minimum Wage, if she will publish the market analysis referred to in that Answer.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have no current plans to publish this analysis.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 16th October 2023 to Question 200467 on the Healthy Start Scheme, what is the NHS Business Services Authority's timeline on when they will obtain contact data for those eligible for but not accessing the Healthy Start scheme.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is currently working with the Department for Work and Pensions to obtain contact data for those eligible for but not accessing the Healthy Start scheme. The NHSBSA expects to receive this data in early 2024.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has a target for the percentage of eligible people accessing the healthy start scheme in 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. The NHSBSA is committed to increasing uptake of the scheme to ensure as many children as possible have a healthy start in life.
The NHSBSA promotes the Healthy Start scheme through its digital channels and has created free tools to help stakeholders promote the scheme locally. The NHSBSA has also reached out to stakeholders to see how it can support them to promote the scheme.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many beneficiaries in receipt of healthy start payments have no recourse to public funds but are eligible through having British children as of 19 September 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
As of 19 September 2023, there are 41 beneficiaries in receipt of payments from the temporary extension to the Healthy Start scheme.