Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 providing funding for upgrades to existing cancer centres.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has published its Health Infrastructure Plan in September 2019 that sets out the Government’s strategy and priorities for investing in the National Health Service estate, including in cancer centres. We are at present working on an update to this strategy through to 2030.
Currently, we do not have a national capital programme strictly dedicated to cancer centres. However, there are several programmes, including the Targeted Investment Fund, the New Hospital Programme and the Hospital Upgrades Programme, that are funding upgrades to existing cancer centres. These schemes are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 number of speech and language therapists in (a) South Yorkshire (b) England.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service has launched its fifth consecutive national recruitment campaign ‘We are the NHS’ to inspire people to consider a career in healthcare and increase applications for healthcare courses, including Speech and Language Therapists.
The Student Loans Company provides the primary funding support package for students in further education. Student loans are subsidised by the taxpayer, this is a conscious investment in the skills and people of this country. Eligible students also have access to a non-repayable grant of £5,000 per academic year plus additional grants and supports depending on their circumstances. The Government continues to widen access to speech and language therapy careers through apprenticeship routes.
As of October 2022, there were 6,986 full time equivalent (FTE) speech and language therapists in NHS trusts and commissioning bodies in England, an increase of 20% since October 2010 and 186 FTE in the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, an increase of 24% since October 2010.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many speech and language therapy sessions veterans with brain damage receiving that therapy receive on average in (a) South Yorkshire and (b) London.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Veterans can and should access all mainstream services from the National Health Service available to the whole population of England. Where injury is service related, veterans can additionally access bespoke services which have been developed to meet the needs of military personnel, veterans and their families.
Neither the Department nor NHS England hold any central data in relation to Speech and Language Therapy Services. While data may be held locally by integrated care boards, it would not capture veteran status or any other profession. As a result, the Department has not made any assessment on the adequacy of the availability of Speech and Language Therapy services for veterans with a long-term physical or neurological health condition.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 the availability of speech and language therapists for veterans who have long-term (a) physical and (b) neurological health conditions in South Yorkshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Veterans can and should access all mainstream services from the National Health Service available to the whole population of England. Where injury is service related, veterans can additionally access bespoke services which have been developed to meet the needs of military personnel, veterans and their families.
Neither the Department nor NHS England hold any central data in relation to Speech and Language Therapy Services. While data may be held locally by integrated care boards, it would not capture veteran status or any other profession. As a result, the Department has not made any assessment on the adequacy of the availability of Speech and Language Therapy services for veterans with a long-term physical or neurological health condition.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time for a veteran with brain damage to start speech and language therapy is.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Veterans can and should access all mainstream services from the National Health Service available to the whole population of England. Where injury is service related, veterans can additionally access bespoke services which have been developed to meet the needs of military personnel, veterans and their families.
Neither the Department nor NHS England hold any central data in relation to Speech and Language Therapy Services. While data may be held locally by integrated care boards, it would not capture veteran status or any other profession. As a result, the Department has not made any assessment on the adequacy of the availability of Speech and Language Therapy services for veterans with a long-term physical or neurological health condition.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many veterans in South Yorkshire were on a waiting list for speech and language therapy as of 27 February.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Veterans can and should access all mainstream services from the National Health Service available to the whole population of England. Where injury is service related, veterans can additionally access bespoke services which have been developed to meet the needs of military personnel, veterans and their families.
Neither the Department nor NHS England hold any central data in relation to Speech and Language Therapy Services. While data may be held locally by integrated care boards, it would not capture veteran status or any other profession. As a result, the Department has not made any assessment on the adequacy of the availability of Speech and Language Therapy services for veterans with a long-term physical or neurological health condition.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many speech and language therapists were working in (a) South Yorkshire and (b) London as of 28 February 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of October 2022, there are 186 full-time equivalent (FTE) speech and language therapists working in National Health Service trusts and the central commissioning board in the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board region. There are 1,660 FTE speech and language therapists working across the four integrated care board regions which make up the London region.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 reduce the waiting times for CAMHS in the Barnsley Central constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population. We are supporting them to expand mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, which commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 so that an additional 345,000 children and young people are able to access National Health Service funded mental health support, including in the Barnsley Central constituency.
We aim to increase the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 healthcare professionals by 2023/24 to support the expansion and transformation of services.
We also provided an additional £79 million for 2021/22 to allow around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services.
Assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may also happen through child and adolescent mental health services. Building on last year’s investment of £13 million (through the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Mental Health Recovery Plan), we will invest £2.5 million in 2022/23 to test and embed improved autism diagnostic pathways.
NHS England are developing a national framework to set out the process of how children, young people and adults should receive an autism diagnosis. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of these diagnostic processes and reduce waiting times.
ICBs and NHS trusts should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE’s) guideline ‘Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management’. The guideline aims to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and to improve the quality of care and support for people of all ages who are diagnosed with ADHD.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 adequacy of provision for people with Tourette Syndrome in South Yorkshire.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The majority of health services for people with Tourette’s syndrome, including in South Yorkshire, are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). ICBs are responsible for ensuring there is adequate provision of health services to their populations, subject to local prioritisation and funding.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 Accident and Emergency departments in hospitals can meet waiting time targets.
Answered by Will Quince
The Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care Services was published on 30 January. The plan aims to deliver one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in emergency waiting times in the National Health Service's history, including bringing down accident and emergency (A&E) wait times significantly over the next year and down towards pre-pandemic levels within two years.
This is supported by additional funding as was announced in the Autumn Statement which provides an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The NHS is also building its bed capacity to be more resilient, expanding by the equivalent of 7,000 general and acute beds, helping reduce crowding and long waits for admission from A&E. This is supported by work to get patients out of beds faster, including a £500 million discharge fund.