Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of (a) people with learning disabilities and/or autism and (b) other people were held in locked mental health rehabilitation facilities in England in (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 and (iii) 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest information available on the number of inpatients in England with a learning disability or autistic people by ward type is set out in the following table.
Inpatient setting | March 2018 | % of patients | March 2019 | % of patients | March 2020 | % of patients |
Secure forensic | 1,155 | 49% | 1,085 | 48% | 985 | 47% |
Acute learning disability | 375 | 16% | 345 | 15% | 315 | 15% |
Acute generic mental illness | 230 | 10% | 285 | 13% | 285 | 14% |
Forensic rehabilitation | 115 | 5% | 105 | 5% | 110 | 5% |
Complex care/rehabilitation | 315 | 13% | 280 | 12% | 245 | 12% |
Other specialist | 60 | 2% | 50 | 2% | 45 | 2% |
Other | 115 | 5% | 105 | 5% | 115 | 5% |
Source: Assuring Transformation Data, NHS Digital.
The data excludes revisions made by providers after the data was initially collated and the data between years is therefore not directly comparable.
The information relating to the proportion of other people in locked mental health rehabilitation facilities in England is not available in the format requested and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on ensuring that each person who is in segregation on a ward for people with a learning disability and/or autism in a locked mental health rehabilitation unit has a discharge plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2019, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care committed to conducting independent case reviews for people with a learning disability or autistic people who were identified as being in long term segregation. The reviews of people identified as being in long term segregation in November 2019 have now been completed and recommendations were made in each case to improve individual circumstances and support moving individuals to less restrictive settings.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) mental health and (b) learning disability nurses were employed in the NHS in each year from 2010 to 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.
The following table shows the number of mental health and learning disability nurses, full time equivalent (FTE) employed in the National Health Service as at September each year along with the latest figure as of July 2020.
| Mental health nurses (FTE) | Learning disabilities nurses (FTE) |
September 2010 | 40,247 | 5,137 |
September 2011 | 39,024 | 4,667 |
September 2012 | 38,135 | 4,311 |
September 2013 | 37,397 | 4,035 |
September 2014 | 36,581 | 3,776 |
September 2015 | 35,671 | 3,577 |
September 2016 | 35,488 | 3,442 |
September 2017 | 35,390 | 3,305 |
September 2018 | 35,835 | 3,234 |
September 2019 | 36,696 | 3,186 |
July 2020 | 37,421 | 3,217 |
Source: NHS HCHS monthly workforce statistics, NHS Digital - July 2020
Notes:
Mental health and learning disability service provision is also commissioned by the NHS from private sector providers. The figures do not reflect staffing in the private sector.
Further information, including on different methodologies for counting the mental health workforce, is published by NHS Digital at the following link:
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Spending Review 2020, what specific steps the Government is taking to scale-up green social prescribing services to help improve mental health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Green social prescribing is funded by HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund and therefore does not form part of the Spending Review 2020. This fund recently awarded £4.27 million to deliver a joint project with the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Natural England, NHS England, Public Health England and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to test green social prescribing in multiple pilot locations, run national experimental work to understand its scalability, and deliver a robust project evaluation.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle workforce burnout across the NHS and social care during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service and social care workforce. The NHS People Plan, published in July, is focused on the wellbeing of the NHS workforce and on strengthening resilience during COVID-19. We have invested in mental health support with £15 million recently going into the roll out of mental health hubs that will provide proactive outreach to overcome barriers to seeking help for frontline staff.
In September we published a winter plan for adult social care setting out the wellbeing support available to support the adult social care workforce through the winter. We have worked alongside the NHS and other organisations to develop a package of emotional, psychological and practical resources for the workforce and wherever possible the same offer is in place for all social care staff as is for their colleagues in the NHS. We have funded extensions of the Samaritans staff support line and the Hospice UK bereavement and trauma line to all social care staff as well as bespoke support for Registered Managers. We will continue to work with local authorities to improve access to occupational health provision and other wellbeing support for care workers, in line with our commitments in the winter plan.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the workforce shortage in social care in the (a) short and (b) long term.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are taking action to increase recruitment into adult social care in both the short and long term. We have launched an online recruitment tool, Join Social Care, to simplify and fast track the recruitment process, and are offering free and rapid induction training via Skills for Care for new and existing staff and volunteers. In the last year we have run a National Recruitment Campaign across broadcast, digital and social media highlighting the vital work care workers do.
The Department for Health and Social Care is also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers to jobseekers, including those who may have lost their jobs during the pandemic from other sectors, such as tourism, hospitality and retail. We are continuing to work with the sector and other government departments to understand how we can further support recruitment and retention, and we continue to work to raise the profile of adult social care careers.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) NHS workers and (b) social care staff have been infected with covid-19 since (i) March 2020 and (ii) September 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data in the format requested.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Spending Review 2020, if he will provide more information on plans for the modernisation of technology across the health and care system.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The funding for technology transformation that was secured in the Spending Review will support local provider organisations to generate a step change in their digital maturity as well as to ensure that there is the right national infrastructure to support them.
We are now planning activity for 2021-22 and we will provide guidance to the system before the start of the next financial year.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Spending Review 2020, what steps the Government plans to take to tackle the rising costs of clinical negligence.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is working intensively with the Ministry of Justice, other Government departments and NHS Resolution and will publish a consultation on next steps in 2021.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Spending Review 2020, if he will provide more detail on the pilots aimed at reducing incidence of birth-related brain injuries.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
£9.4 million has been provided to support maternity safety pilots through the 2020 Spending Review. The pilots will provide cutting-edge training and expert guidance, to improve practice and avoid harm to babies. This will include:
- Fresh learning from recent investigations and academic research to be used to improve clinical practice during childbirth;
- Pilots to provide cutting-edge training and expert guidance, to improve practice and avoid harm to babies; and
- Funding to also cover the costs of the final year of the Ockenden Review into maternity safety at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust.
The funding is in addition to existing funding to improve maternity safety by strengthening clinical leadership, implementing best clinical practice and fostering cultures of continuous learning for improvement through reviews and investigations.