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 assessment his Department has made of the effect of changes in the availability of health visiting and school nursing services on health outcomes for children and young people; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government is committed to achieving good health outcomes for children and young people. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning appropriate services for 0-19 year olds in their areas, including health visiting and school nursing. Public Health England monitors a range of health outcomes for children, provided by Local authorities, including the health visiting services’ high impact actions, such as reducing smoking in pregnancy and managing a healthy weight in 4-5 year olds. The majority of these show a steady state of improvement[1].
Whilst no similar collection of data is made for school nursing services, and therefore no assessment has been made, school nurses are key providers of both the National Child Measurement Programme and childhood immunisations, both of which show significant uptake rates[2].
Both the Health Visitor Programme and School Nurse Programme, which concluded in 2015, introduced new service models for both professions to help develop improved access, user experience and outcomes, as well as reducing health inequalities. The Health Visitor programme also saw the workforce increase considerably enabling more families to be reached. Both professional groups indicate the service models have provided increased awareness of the service by users and a better structured delivery.
[1] Chimat Early Years Profiles
[2] National Child Measurement Programme https://www.noo.org.uk/NCMP
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 assessment he has made of the effect of changes in the availability of health visiting services on patients receiving those services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government is committed to achieving good health outcomes for children and young people. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning appropriate services for 0-5 year olds in their areas, including health visiting. Public Health England monitors a range of outcomes for child health. This includes information provided by local authorities for health visiting services high impact actions such as reducing smoking in pregnancy and managing a healthy weight in 4-5 year olds. The majority of these show steady state of improvement[1].
The Health Visitor Programme, which concluded in 2015, introduced a new service model for the profession to help develop improved access, user experience and outcomes, as well as reducing health inequalities. The Health Visitor programme also saw the workforce increase considerably enabling more families to be reached. Professional groups indicate the service model has provided increased awareness of the service by users and a better structured delivery.
[1] Chimat Early Years Profiles
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 he plans to take to maintain or increase the number of district nurses; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Health Education England (HEE) operate an annual comprehensive planning process to ensure their investments meet the future needs of the population including the National Health Service requirement for district nurses. This process determines the education commissioning volumes for the following financial year and is published in the Workforce Plan for England.
Since 2013/14 HEE has increased district nursing education and training commissions by over 25%. In 2016/17 they have commissioned 505 district nurse training places in their Workforce Plan for England maintaining the levels of commissions from 2015/16. Workforce commissions for 2017/18 will be published in December 2016.
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 recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of current (a) healthcare professional staffing levels and (b) resources to achieve a seven-day NHS.
Answered by David Mowat
We have provided the National Health Service in England with £10 billion in real terms additional funding by 2020-21. This fully funds the NHS’s Five Year Forward View, including delivery of seven day services in hospitals. These are urgent and emergency care, non-elective hospital services which are of the same high quality at the weekend as during the week.
It will be for local commissioners and providers to decide how to organise their services to meet the standards for seven day services in hospitals. The Government is not imposing a “one size fits all” model. At a national level, the Department is working with NHS England, NHS Improvement and Health Education England to produce a summary of the workforce implications of implementing the four priority clinical standards for urgent and emergency care services in hospitals, which it will publish by the end of the calendar year.
The Government has committed to increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors in general practice. NHS England will provide over £500 million of recurrent funding by 2020-21, on top of current primary medical care allocations, to enable clinical commissioning groups to commission and fund extra capacity across England. This is to ensure that by 2020 everyone has access to general practitioner services, including sufficient routine appointments at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand, alongside effective access to out of hours and urgent care services.
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 discussions he has had with his Cabinet colleagues on measures to protect children from junk food marketing.
Answered by Philip Dunne
We have worked closely with other Government Departments in developing Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action. Its policies are informed by the latest research and evidence, including from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition report Carbohydrates and Health, Public Health England’s evidence package Sugar reduction: the evidence for action, debates in this House and various reports from key stakeholders including the Health Select Committee.
Copies of Carbohydrates and Health and Sugar reduction: the evidence for action are attached and are available at:
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 discussions he has had with his Cabinet colleagues on including measures to tackle price promotions in the childhood obesity strategy prior to publication of that strategy.
Answered by Philip Dunne
We have worked closely with other Government Departments in developing Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action. Its policies are informed by the latest research and evidence, including from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition report Carbohydrates and Health, Public Health England’s evidence package Sugar reduction: the evidence for action, debates in this House and various reports from key stakeholders including the Health Select Committee.
Copies of Carbohydrates and Health and Sugar reduction: the evidence for action are attached and are available at:
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 PREMs and PROMs data his Department holds for people with (a) sickle cell disease and (b) thalassaemia.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England does not currently routinely collect this information.
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, how many apheresis machines are operational in the UK; and where those machines are located.
Answered by George Freeman
Apheresis machines are part of the care provided in a number of haematology services including sickle cell and thalassaemia care.
NHS Blood and Transplant is one of the main providers of Therapeutic Apheresis Services in England and has the largest installed base of therapeutic apheresis equipment in the National Health Service (32 machine platforms across the country). Additional provision of apheresis services are provided by NHS trusts and other UK Blood Services but NHS England does not currently hold information on this information centrally.
Work in relation to these services including the incentivisation of automated exchange through Commissioning for Quality and Innovation will improve the baseline information over the coming year.
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, how many people have died as a result of (a) sickle cell disease and (b) thalassaemia in each (i) clinical commissioning group area, (ii) trust area and (iii) national sickle cell and thalassaemia centre area in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England does not routinely collect this information. Data on adverse events for patients with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia is available from the National Haemoglobinopathy Registry Report 2013/14.
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 the (a) treatment targets and (b) care processes are for people with (i) sickle cell disease and (ii) thalassaemia in each (A) clinical commissioning group area, (B) trust area and (C) national sickle cell and thalassaemia centre area in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England has a published service specification for haemoglobinopathy which covers the requirements of commissioned services providing specialised services for patients with sickle cell disease or thalassaemia. The specification was developed by the Haemoglobinopathies Clinical Reference Group that covers Sickle Cell Disease, Thalassaemia and other very rare anaemias requiring lifelong transfusion and chelation. The specification reflects that although these are complex disorders they are often grouped together and managed by the same specialist team. It recognises that each condition will have distinct clinical manifestations and treatments.
Specialised services for haemoglobinopathy care B08/S/a:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/b08-speci-serv-haemo.pdf