Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 impact of hospice services on trends in the level of hospital admissions in (a) Lewisham and (b) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data that would enable us to make an assessment of the potential impact of hospice services on trends in the level of hospital admissions in Lewisham or England.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to tackle staffing shortages in the hospice sector.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is seeking to address workforce shortages, particularly in community care, through the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP). The LTWP, published in 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to grow the NHS workforce and deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The LTWP aims to grow the number and proportion of NHS staff working in mental health, primary, and community care, and sets out an ambition to grow these roles 73% by 2036/37.
Most hospices are independent, charitable organisations which develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. The Government has provided £60 million in additional funding to deliver one-off payments to over 27,000 eligible staff employed by non-NHS organisations, including hospices, with contracts to deliver NHS services, and which employ their staff on dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's Kinship Care Strategy published on 15 December 2023, what criteria is used to allocate children's social care services; and what steps her Department is taking to support kinship carers.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 recent trends in the number of people with eating disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There was a huge increase in the number of children and young people in need of eating disorder services due to the pandemic. 8,034 children and young people started treatment in 2019/20, compared to 2022/23, where 11,807 children and young people starting treatment, an increase of 47%. The Department and NHS England are working hard to ensure that everyone has access to the treatment they need.
The Department is providing record investment in mental health services, including for eating disorders services, with £15.9 billion across 2022/23, representing 27.7% more funding than in 2018/19. This includes increasing funding into children and young people's community eating disorder services every year, with funding for eating disorder services increasing by £54 million in 2023/24.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support she is providing for people with eating disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There was a huge increase in the number of children and young people in need of eating disorder services due to the pandemic. 8,034 children and young people started treatment in 2019/20, compared to 2022/23, where 11,807 children and young people starting treatment, an increase of 47%. The Department and NHS England are working hard to ensure that everyone has access to the treatment they need.
The Department is providing record investment in mental health services, including for eating disorders services, with £15.9 billion across 2022/23, representing 27.7% more funding than in 2018/19. This includes increasing funding into children and young people's community eating disorder services every year, with funding for eating disorder services increasing by £54 million in 2023/24.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 NHS integrated care boards commission (a) end-of-life and (b) other palliative care for people in all age groups.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the National Health Service has always been required to commission appropriate palliative and end of life care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, in 2022, palliative care services were added to the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission, promoting a more consistent national approach and supporting commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care in all settings. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications for both adults and children.
From April 2024, NHS England will include palliative and end of life care in the list of topics for its regular performance discussions between national and regional leads. Additionally, NHS England has commissioned the development of a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together relevant, all age local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of both adults and children in their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.
NHS England has also funded seven Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Networks, each with a dedicated Children and Young People Lead. These networks support commissioners in the delivery of outstanding clinical and personalised care for people in the last year of life and reduce local variation.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he plans to endorse the revised Comprehensive School Safety Framework.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Comprehensive School Safety Framework is well aligned with UK priorities, and we support its implementation through our funding to Education Cannot Wait. The UK has endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration which commits to reducing the impact of conflict on education and is closely linked to the Comprehensive School Safety Framework. FCDO officials will discuss endorsing the framework with The Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support the (i) recruitment, (ii) retention and (iii) professional development of (A) teachers and (B) educational staff in crisis-affected countries and (b) invest in their (1) safety and (2) working conditions.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The FCDO supports the education workforce in crises-affected countries through our support to multilateral partners; our bilateral programmes; and our wider policy work on strengthening education systems and foundational learning. The UK is the second largest donor to Education Cannot Wait, which has funded the recruitment and/or financial support for nearly 170,000 teachers between 2016 and 2022. The UK is also the second largest donor to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which spends over 60 percent of its funds in fragile and conflict affected states and directly supports teacher recruitment, training and safer school environments.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to help international education systems prepare for natural disasters.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
In 2023, we pledged £80 million to Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a global fund for education in emergencies, central to supporting education resilience in the face of increasing natural and man-made disasters. The FCDO's position paper, 'Addressing the Climate, Environment, and Biodiversity Crises in and through Girls' Education' (2022), provides a framework of priority actions to build resilient and climate smart school systems. Increasingly, our bilateral education programmes are building climate resilience, and we are working, as leading donors, through global education funds - Global Partnership for Education and ECW - to protect education in the face of disasters.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to issue guidance to children’s hospices on changes in the distribution of the Children’s Hospice Grant for the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has confirmed it will renew the Children and Young People hospice funding for 2024/25, again allocating £25 million of funding for children’s hospices, using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as previously used. Funding will be distributed via integrated care boards (ICBs), in line with National Health Service devolution.
NHS England wrote to all ICBs and children’s hospices on 9 April 2024 to confirm the new arrangements, providing the sector with the clarity on 2024/25 allocations they have been seeking, for this very important funding stream.