Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the contribution made by Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists to the NHS.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the effectiveness of the contribution made by Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists to the National Health Service.
Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists form part of the wider workforce on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and can provide support in a range of settings. Health Education England commissions training for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy as part of a four year doctorate. The training and practice is accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
Building the capacity, capability and confidence of both the specialist and wider workforce is a key part of the Government’s approach to improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, sustained through a culture of continuous evidence-based service improvement, delivered by a workforce with the right mix of skills, competencies and experience.
In addition, the Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme is transforming existing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to ensure they are providing evidence based therapies coupled with session by session outcome monitoring. The programme is being expanded to cover additional areas of clinical practice, so that all children and young people’s mental health services are able to deliver high quality evidence-based care by 2018.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to make smear tests for cervical cancer available to all women over the age of 16 who are sexually active; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation.
In 2012 the UK NSC recommended that the age of first invitation for cervical screening should be age 25 on the basis that there is evidence of a large number of women screened and treated with relatively little benefit below this age. Cervical cancer in women under the age of 25 is very rare. Younger women often undergo natural and harmless changes in the cervix that screening would identify as cervical abnormalities, and in most cases these abnormalities resolve themselves without any need for treatment.
Cervical cancer is linked to a persistent infection with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a very common sexually transmitted infection. Since 2008, girls aged 12 and 13 have been offered the HPV vaccination, which immunises them against the most high risk strains of HPV. To start with, girls up to 18 were also vaccinated so the first girls to be vaccinated will be coming into the cervical screening programme next year as they are 23 and 24 now. This vaccine will reduce the already low rates of cervical cancer in these young women and mean they will be protected for many years.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS staff were employed on administrative tasks in (a) 2010 and (b) 2014; and what proportion of the total NHS wage bill they represented in each year.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The provisional monthly National Health Service hospital and community health service workforce statistics, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show that in May 2010 the proportion of NHS staff in England employed on administrative tasks was 24.0% and in May 2014 the proportion was 22.2%. The majority of NHS staff will perform some administrative tasks but these figures are based on administrative and clerical staff working in central functions; hotel, property and estates; scientific, therapeutic and technical support; clinical support and some ambulance service support staff; as well as managers and senior managers. It includes clerical staff such as those working as medical secretaries and medical records clerks but excludes those who deal directly with patients, such as ward receptionists.
The HSCIC publishes data only on NHS earnings, not on the NHS pay bill. The answer is based on earnings rather than the total pay bill.
In May 2010 the proportion of NHS administrative staff earnings to all NHS staff earnings was 20.0% and in May 2014 the proportion was 18.8%.
Asked by: Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that food labels include details of any genetically modified ingredients used in a product's manufacture; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Food Standards Agency advises that EC Regulation 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed requires that food derived from genetically modified (GM) sources must be labelled, regardless of the presence of detectable GM material in the final product or of the quantity of intentionally used GM ingredients. This Regulation applies to all food that is marketed in the United Kingdom and in other member states.