Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mental health staff have been trained in issues relating to older adults since the 2016 Five Year Forward View targets were set.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
This information is not held in the format requested as most training for mental health staff relates to a range of ages and not just older adults.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 12 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that all acute hospitals will have mental health liaison teams for all age groups by 2020-21.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Between 2016 and 2018, NHS England has awarded transformation funding for liaison mental health services to 71 hospital sites to achieve the ‘core 24’ service standard as set out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.
To track progress, NHS England has commissioned the annual survey of liaison psychiatry, which took a snapshot of progress as at June 2018. The survey is nearly complete and results are expected to be published by NHS England in the coming weeks and are expected to demonstrate positive progress. The survey has been re-commissioned to take place again in 2019.
The NHS Long Term Plan confirmed continued further investment in liaison mental health services, with an expectation that not only would all hospitals have a liaison mental health service, but 70% will be achieving the ‘core 24’ service level by 2023/24. NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently inviting applications from sustainability and transformation partnerships for the second wave of national funding.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to achieve the target in the NHS Long Term Plan of recruiting 40,000 extra nurses in the next five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The interim People Plan published on 3 June 2019 sets out some of the steps needed to ensure the National Health Service have the staff they need to deliver high quality care, including growing our nursing workforce by 40,000 in the next five years.
The interim People Plan commits to providing funding for an additional 5,000 clinical placements for pre-registration nurse training places each year, as well as reducing attrition from training courses and expanding the international recruitment of nurses. To support this commitment NHS Improvement and NHS England are currently delivering a rapid clinical placement expansion programme, working with NHS trust directors of nursing to provide targeted support and resource to increase placement capacity for the September 2019 student intake. NHS Improvement and NHS England have also committed to undertake a comprehensive review of clinical placement activity to increase expansion and student intakes in future years.
The interim People Plan stresses the importance of improving the retention of our existing nursing workforce. To that effect NHS Improvement and NHS Employers have been working in partnership to deliver a national programme to support NHS trusts improve the retention of their nursing and clinical workforce focusing on key issues such as flexible working, development and career planning.
The interim People Plan also outlines the need to support more nurses to return to practice. NHS Improvement has committed to launch a new return to practice campaign, alongside a new marketing campaign, to highlight the opportunities and support available.
A full People Plan will be published soon after the conclusion of the Spending Review when there is further clarity on NHS education and training budgets.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a costed plan for a growing, appropriately-skilled and sustainable cancer workforce will be included within the final NHS People Plan.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The interim People Plan published on 3 June 2019 puts the workforce at the heart of the National Health Service and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. A final People Plan will be published when there is further clarity on NHS education and training budgets.
The Cancer Workforce Plan for England, published in December 2017 by Health Education England (HEE), set out plans to expand capacity and skills in the cancer workforce, including targeting additional training support for seven priority professions such as clinical radiology, histopathology, oncology and diagnostic and therapeutic radiography. Since 2017 there has been a net increase of 833 full time equivalent staff across the seven priority professions.
HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications of further development of cancer services. This work will inform the final People Plan.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 7 January 2019 to Question 203453 on Mental Health Services: Ethnic Groups, if he will publish a time-frame for the Department’s plan to appoint a mental health equalities champion.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has appointed Jacqui Dyer MBE as the Mental Health Equalities Champion. She took up her appointment on 22 February 2019.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' statement on racism and mental health, published in March 2018 recommending the appointment of a new equalities champion to drive cross-Government action on race equality in the NHS.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is committed to addressing inequalities across mental health. Plans to appoint a mental health equalities champion will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of community mental health services for people with severe mental illness.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government recognises that we need to go further in improving mental health services.
NHS England is developing a new framework for community mental health services focussing on care for adults with severe mental illnesses.
This work draws on a wide range of sources of data and intelligence, including the Care Quality Commission’s annual community mental health surveys and inspections of services.
The Government has asked the National Health Service to develop a long-term plan which will set out a vision for the health service and we have been clear that better access to mental health services, to help achieve the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health, is one of the principles which must underpin the plan. It will be published shortly.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recent Rethink Mental Illness survey which found that patients with severe mental illness wait on average 14 weeks for an assessment; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government recognises that we need to go further in improving mental health services. The recent survey and publication of ‘Right Treatment, Right Time’ by Rethink Mental Illness provides a valuable additional contribution to discussions about priorities for mental health going forward.
The Government has asked the National Health Service to develop a long-term plan which will set out a vision for the health service and we have been clear that better access to mental health services, to help achieve the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health, is one of the principles which must underpin the plan.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 36 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, whether each access to treatment pathway will (a) be published according to the timetable set out in that document and (b) include waiting time targets.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Of the clinical pathways referred to on page 36 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, the following have already been published.
- Early Intervention in Psychosis;
- Urgent and Emergency Liaison Mental Health Services;
- Services for Children and Young People with Eating Disorders;
- Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) pathway for Long Term Conditions; and
- The Perinatal Pathway.
Additionally, guidance in relation to IAPT for people with long-term conditions has also been published (in March) along with guidance on commissioning physical healthcare for people with severe mental illness and for developing accident and emergency liaison psychiatry services.
The acute pathway for adults and older adults are still in development alongside an updated Pathway for children and young people with eating disorders, so that more young people can be treated closer to home.
Other pathways will now need to be considered within the context of the long-term plan. The Government has been clear that better access to mental health services, to help achieve the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health, is one of the principles which must underpin the plan.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled, Understanding the performance and potential of specialist hospitals, published by the Innovation Agency and UCLPartners Academic Health Science Partnership in October 2018 , whether he has plans to encourage a closer working relationship between academic health science networks and specialist hospitals to improve performance in the NHS.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of their licence, Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) are required to flexibly address specific local needs and challenges. In practice, this means that AHSNs will continue to build and develop their local and regional networks, strengthening relationships with all National Health Service organisations including specialist hospitals.