Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 increase the uptake of perinatal mental health services among ethnic minority communities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service is committed to addressing unwarranted variation and health inequalities and promoting equality, including for Perinatal Mental Health services. This includes supporting services to ensure appropriate access for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, to ensure that women from all backgrounds who need specialist Perinatal Mental Health support receive it.
NHS England’s Perinatal Mental Health programme is taking steps to ensure: training and development are available to ensure the workforce is culturally competent, diverse and representative of communities; equalities ambitions are embedded into strategic plans and governance arrangements; coproduction is embedded in service design, development and governance structures; regions and local health systems are supported to develop and achieve equality ambitions for their populations; data is available to understand trends in inequality in access, experience and outcomes to specialist Perinatal Mental Health services; third sector groups and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors are included to support groups at risk of health inequalities.
In addition, NHS England published its first Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy in October 2020, laying out plans for addressing inequalities in access, experience and outcomes in mental health care.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are restrictions in place preventing sports massage therapists from treating people aged under 18.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no legal restrictions in place preventing sports massage therapists from treating people aged under 18.
We urge anyone seeking sports massage therapy to take the time to find a reputable, insured and appropriately qualified practitioner who is on a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that adequate safeguarding checks are made on sports massage therapists.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is committed to a proportionate system of oversight for health and care professions and the types of assurance in place will vary by profession based on the specific risk profile.
Anyone undertaking or seeking employment as a sports massage therapist will be subject to employer checks, which may include a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Self-employed sports massage therapists can also obtain a basic criminal record certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service, which will show any unspent convictions or cautions they have.
Sports massage therapists can also join voluntary registers, including the Complementary and Natural Council register, which is accredited under the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care’s Accredited Registers Programme. The Programme provides assurance to the public when choosing and using health and care services by independently assessing organisations who register practitioners who are not regulated by law.
We urge anyone seeking sports massage therapy to take the time to find a reputable, insured and appropriately qualified practitioner who is on a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 potential merits of requiring that all sports massage therapists undergo enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Anyone undertaking or seeking employment within a health or care role will be subject to employer checks, which may include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Whatever their employment status, any individual can get a basic criminal record certificate from the DBS, which will show any unspent convictions or cautions they have.
On 18 April 2023, the Independent Review of the disclosure and barring regime published its report on the effectiveness of the scheme in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. The report concluded that the regime is delivering its mission of helping employers and organisations to make safer employment decisions but identifies several areas where the regime could be strengthened. The review recommended that self-employed individuals seeking to work with children or vulnerable adults are made eligible to apply for an enhanced DBS certificate with the relevant barred lists check.
The Government is carefully considering the Review’s recommendations.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department produced a ministerial response under the write round process to the Department for Education's review of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State for Education has been clear she is very concerned about reports of inappropriate materials being used to teach relationships and sex education (RSHE). The Government has brought forward the review of the RSHE statutory guidance as a result, including conducting a public consultation as soon as possible.
The statutory guidance clearly states that the guidance will be reviewed every three years from first teaching (September 2020) and so the decision to review the guidance does not require collective agreement. The Secretary of State for Education will seek collective agreement to the consultation documents through a write-round process, before publishing the consultation in the autumn. This process is not yet underway.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which integrated care boards are (a) meeting and (b) not meeting the NHS target of completing 75 per cent of annual health checks for people aged 14 or over with a learning disability by 2023-24; and what level are those not meeting the target of at least 75 per cent reaching.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are taking action to reduce inequalities for people with a learning disability and autistic people, including annual health checks to help identify undetected health conditions early and ensure the appropriateness of ongoing treatments. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out an ambition to improve the uptake of the existing annual health check in primary care for people with a learning disability aged 14 years old and over, so that at least 75% of those eligible have a health check each year.
The attached report, from data published by NHS England, sets out data on annual health checks delivered in 2022/23 by area. It shows that, at the end of March 2023, 31 Integrated Care Systems / Transforming Care Partnership areas achieved the NHS Long Term Plan target of 75% or more for annual health checks for eligible people with a learning disability and 11 did not. The attached table shows the variation for those not currently meeting the target, this ranges from 66.1%-74.9%.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 20 June 2023 to Question 188920 on Drugs: Licensing, whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency plans to prioritise applications for new hormone replacement therapy products, in the context of hormone replacement therapy supply shortages.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no formal criteria to prioritise applications for medicines because this is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously stated the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collaborates with the Department and National Health Service where a condition that currently does not have any currently licensed medicines, or where there are supply issues with currently licensed medicines.
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and the vast majority are in good supply. MHRA regularly engages with the Department to prevent and mitigate supply issues in the short and long term and works with them to ensure decisions are aligned with the wider health sector’s priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 20 June 2023 to Question 188918 on Drugs: Licensing, what criteria his Department uses to determine what conditions are a public health need.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no formal criteria to prioritise applications for medicines because this is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously stated the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collaborates with the Department and National Health Service where a condition that currently does not have any currently licensed medicines, or where there are supply issues with currently licensed medicines.
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and the vast majority are in good supply. MHRA regularly engages with the Department to prevent and mitigate supply issues in the short and long term and works with them to ensure decisions are aligned with the wider health sector’s priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 20 June 2023 to Question 188918 on Drugs: Licensing, whether he considers the menopause to be a public health need.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no formal criteria to prioritise applications for medicines because this is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously stated the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collaborates with the Department and National Health Service where a condition that currently does not have any currently licensed medicines, or where there are supply issues with currently licensed medicines.
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and the vast majority are in good supply. MHRA regularly engages with the Department to prevent and mitigate supply issues in the short and long term and works with them to ensure decisions are aligned with the wider health sector’s priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 his Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NHS collaborate to align priorities for women's health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department works closes with its arm length bodies and its other health system partners to deliver on Government priorities including those in the Women’s Health Strategy for England.