Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the Government Equalities Office is taking steps to (a) tackle the 90 per cent termination rate following a prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome and (b) assess the effect of that rate on the community of people with Down’s syndrome; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We recognise the concerns that the introduction of offering non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) could have on the rate of possible terminations following a diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome. However, the key objective of NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme (FASP) is to enable prospective parents to make informed choices, at each step along the screening pathway. The screening guidance and midwife training is very clear that the options should be offered sensitively and prospective parents decisions respected. Counselling is available at all stages of the screening pathway to support people to make informed choices in the event of a fetal abnormality being detected, and the decision to terminate must rest on the judgement of the woman herself and her doctors.
The national introduction of the evaluative roll out of NIPT as a contingent screening test is yet to be implemented into the NHS FASP. Once NIPT is rolled out, data on the choices women make regarding screening and/or diagnosis will be collected. Data will also be collected on the pregnancy outcomes of women who choose to have screening, and about babies born with Down’s syndrome.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether new voluntary sector organisations are eligible to access the £39 million of funding provided by her Department for relationship support services in local communities.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Reducing Parental Conflict Programme is funded by up to £39m, and will encourage councils across England to integrate evidence-based services and approaches to addressing parental conflict that work for their local families.
Just over a quarter of the programme budget will be used to build the evidence base for which interventions work to reduce parental conflict, and provide access to face-to-face support to reduce parental conflict in 30 local authorities across England. The procurement process for the delivery of the face-to-face interventions will be open to any interested party as an open competition.
To help potential suppliers to prepare for these opportunities, we recently published a Prior Information Notice which outlined the timescales for the procurement. This notice advised suppliers that we will be launching an opportunity in July for expert organisations to bid to deliver the face-to-face interventions which DWP will be funding, with these contracts in place by January 2019. Full details of this process will be available when the Invitation to Tender is published. Organisations interested in bidding for the face-to-face contracts will be able to access the procurement opportunities on Contracts Finder, and can register their interest on Bravo.
In addition to the procurement of face-to-face services, we have also announced £6m of joint funding with the Department of Health and Social Care, aimed at improving the outcomes of children of alcohol-dependent parents, and we expect that there will be opportunities for voluntary sector organisations to participate in this work.