Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of schools' current ability to make referrals to CAMHS services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has made no such assessment. However, the Department for Education undertakes and publishes pupil, parent, and teacher omnibus surveys which include a range of questions on their perception of mental health and wellbeing support and promotion in school. This supports our understanding of, amongst other areas, education staff’s perceived confidence in identifying and responding to mental health issues, including knowing when and how to make referrals to external, specialist support services.
We are committed to equipping more education staff with the knowledge and skills to effectively identify and respond to mental health issues, and feel confident when doing so, and that is why we are taking immediate action to build schools’ capability and capacity in this area. Over a third of state schools and colleges have so far claimed a senior mental health lead training grant, backed by £9.5 million in year 2021/22, and a further £10 million this financial year. This is sufficient to enable up to two thirds of state schools and colleges to access training by April 2023. The training will help leads to make or support effective referrals to NHS children and young people’s mental health services, or other services as appropriate.
In addition to providing advice to school and college staff, established mental health support teams connect with local children and young people’s mental health services and liaise with external specialist services. This includes an integrated referral system with community and specialist services to facilitate access to appropriate support.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 help reduce waiting times for elective surgeries in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in Dulwich and West Norwood. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels. A proportion of this funding will be invested in workforce capacity and training and we have committed to invest £5.9 billion for new beds, equipment and technology.
The target to eliminate waiting times of two years or more for elective procedures was met in July 2022 and we aim to eliminate waiting time of eighteen months or more by April 2023. This will be achieved through increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector and engaging with patients to understand choices made regarding their care.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement on 22 September 2022 that the General Medical Council will extend the temporary emergency registration scheme, what steps he is taking to ensure data on the number of working doctors (a) remains accurate and (b) does not include doctors who re-registered during the pandemic but are now no longer practising.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not collect or hold data on the number of practising doctors in the United Kingdom.
The General Medical Council is an independent healthcare regulatory body not subject to Government oversight. As such, it is responsible for the maintenance of its registers and associated data collection. As part of maintaining the temporary emergency register, the General Medical Council wrote to all doctors on the register to confirm they wished to maintain their temporary registration.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including NHS South East London Integrated Care Board, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.
NHS England continues to support local systems, including NHS South East London Integrated Care Board, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 estimate of the average waiting time in each region between a CAMHS referral by a school and (a) response to the referral and (b) first appointment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have no plans to make a specific estimate, as a national access and waiting times standard for child and adolescent mental health services has not yet been defined.
NHS England has consulted on the definition for and introduction of a range of waiting time standards, including children, young people and their families or carers presenting to community-based mental health services should commence care within four weeks from referral. This may involve immediate advice, support or a brief intervention, access to another more appropriate service, a longer-term intervention or agreement on a patient care plan or a specialist assessment. In February 2022, NHS England published the outcome of its consultation and further information on next steps will be available in due course.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with diabetes in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of people that were diagnosed with diabetes in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency in each of the calendar years from 2016 to 2020, broken down by diabetes type.
Year of diagnosis | Number of people diagnosed with diabetes | |
Type 1 | Type 2 and Other | |
2016 | 15 | 595 |
2017 | 20 | 340 |
2018 | 20 | 520 |
2019 | 20 | 325 |
2020 | 15 | 285 |
Source: National Diabetes Audit
Notes:
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Dulwich and West Norwood. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.
The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.
We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Dulwich and West Norwood. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.
The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.
National Health Service breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency since 2015.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Since 2015, two nursing homes and eight residential homes have been ‘deactivated’ in Dulwich and West Norwood. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the proportion of GP appointments in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency conducted face-to-face in (a) the last 12 months and (b) 2013.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested. However, in the 12 months to August 2022, 53.8% of general practice appointments were conducted face-to-face in the South East London Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations.