Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mental healthcare provision is available for prison inmates in England; what assessment he has made of the performance and adequacy of this provision; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Norman Lamb
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) on 7 July 2014, Official Report, columns 45-46W.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the conclusions of Delivering race equality in mental health care: An action plan for reform inside and outside services published in 2005; what his Department's strategy is for reducing inequalities in Black and minority ethnic patients' access to, experience of, and outcomes from mental health services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Delivering Race Equality in mental health care programme, a five-year Department of Health programme launched in January 2005, was developed to address inequalities in patient admission, detention and experience of services.
The 2010 document Race Equality Action Plan: A five-year review looks back at the work of the Delivering Race Equality in mental health care programme and describes some of the key challenges, successes and learning. A copy of Race Equality Action Plan has been placed in the Library.
Our mental health Strategy, No Health Without Mental Health states that the Race Equality Action Plan provides a strong base from which commissioners and service providers can make improvements. These will rely on:
- local collection and monitoring of information on ethnicity and culture;
- better use of these data to inform commissioning and provision in health and social care;
- a focus on outcomes that work for individuals and communities;
- monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of service delivery, especially around equality needs; and
- establishing mechanisms that allow local user groups to engage with providers and commissioners, and that empower and support them so that they can engage effectively.
Additionally, our new mental health action plan, Closing the Gap sets out our priorities for essential change in mental health: 25 areas where people can expect to see and experience the fastest changes. The fourth priority is that we will tackle inequalities around access to mental health services. We know that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities have to date been less likely to use psychological therapies.
Which is why we are working with the Race Equality Foundation and other stakeholders to try and understand why this is the case and to understand inequalities around access to other services. NHS England are also working with BME community leaders to encourage more people to use psychological therapies.
The Ministerial Working Group on Equality in Mental Health has been established to support the Mental Health Equality work-stream of the Mental Health Strategy programme. The group will report to the Mental Health Strategy Ministerial Advisory Group. This will help to ensure that equality issues directly inform strategy implementation and enable the Government to fulfil their duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act.
Information on the number of open hospital spells, the number of occupied beds on a single day as a proxy for beds available, broken down by ethnicity is provided in the attached table.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of beds in (a) residential mental health facilities and (b) psychiatric wards in NHS hospitals in England are occupied by black and minority ethnic people.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Delivering Race Equality in mental health care programme, a five-year Department of Health programme launched in January 2005, was developed to address inequalities in patient admission, detention and experience of services.
The 2010 document Race Equality Action Plan: A five-year review looks back at the work of the Delivering Race Equality in mental health care programme and describes some of the key challenges, successes and learning. A copy of Race Equality Action Plan has been placed in the Library.
Our mental health Strategy, No Health Without Mental Health states that the Race Equality Action Plan provides a strong base from which commissioners and service providers can make improvements. These will rely on:
- local collection and monitoring of information on ethnicity and culture;
- better use of these data to inform commissioning and provision in health and social care;
- a focus on outcomes that work for individuals and communities;
- monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of service delivery, especially around equality needs; and
- establishing mechanisms that allow local user groups to engage with providers and commissioners, and that empower and support them so that they can engage effectively.
Additionally, our new mental health action plan, Closing the Gap sets out our priorities for essential change in mental health: 25 areas where people can expect to see and experience the fastest changes. The fourth priority is that we will tackle inequalities around access to mental health services. We know that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities have to date been less likely to use psychological therapies.
Which is why we are working with the Race Equality Foundation and other stakeholders to try and understand why this is the case and to understand inequalities around access to other services. NHS England are also working with BME community leaders to encourage more people to use psychological therapies.
The Ministerial Working Group on Equality in Mental Health has been established to support the Mental Health Equality work-stream of the Mental Health Strategy programme. The group will report to the Mental Health Strategy Ministerial Advisory Group. This will help to ensure that equality issues directly inform strategy implementation and enable the Government to fulfil their duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act.
Information on the number of open hospital spells, the number of occupied beds on a single day as a proxy for beds available, broken down by ethnicity is provided in the attached table.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of patients waiting more than six weeks for diagnostic tests through NHS England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Government has invested more than £750 million over four years to support early diagnosis in cancer and improve access to key diagnostics to make sure that everyone has access to the best possible treatment. Awareness raising campaigns such as Be Clear on Cancer are encouraging more people to come forward with their symptoms.
Patients should receive timely care, and NHS England, the NHS Trust Development Authority and Monitor are working with providers and commissioners to ensure patients get access to tests and treatment as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that resources for mental health services meet the requirements of both adults and children.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Mental health and wellbeing, for both adults and children, is a priority for this Government. Our overarching goal is to ensure that mental health has equal priority with physical health, and that everyone who needs it has timely access to the best available treatment. We have enshrined in law the equal status of mental and physical health in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
The Mandate to NHS England makes clear that 'everyone who needs it should have timely access to evidence based services'. This will involve extending and ensuring more open access to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, in particular for children and young people, and for those out of work.
We are also committed to introducing access and/or waiting time standards for mental health. The revised Mandate asks NHS England to develop and evaluate a range of costed options to implement access and waiting standards for mental health services starting from April 2015, with a phased introduction depending on affordability.
We will hold the National Health Service to account for the quality of services and outcomes for mental health patients through the NHS Outcomes Framework. Improvements for people with mental health problems will also be a crucial element of success across the framework as a whole.
Our action plan, Closing the Gap, which was launched in January 2014, sets our priorities for action and progress in mental health services over the next couple of years, including actions supporting commissioners in allocating resources.
We are setting up a new, national Mental Health Intelligence Network to provide comprehensive, up to date information about mental health and wellbeing, mental health problems and what the most pressing needs are in each area – which will support commissioning of services.