Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 improve adult social care provision in (a) England and (b) Bournemouth West constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the challenges facing the adult social care system, and we are taking immediate action to improve the situation. These actions include:
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care. The Department funds an annual programme of support to local authorities and their partners to help them improve the delivery of their statutory duties.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 increase the availability of autism assessments in (a) England and (b) Bournemouth West constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of integrated care board (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism assessments and diagnosis, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. In doing so, ICBs should take account of waiting lists, and should consider how local funding can be deployed to best meet the needs of their local population.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. Since publication, NHS England has been supporting systems and services to identify where there are challenges for implementation, and how they might overcome these.
NHS England is also working with research organisations to explore evidence-based models that support improved outcomes for those people waiting for an autism assessment.
The NHS Dorset ICB advises that it has conducted a review with local partners and people with lived experience to help develop plans to improve services. The ICB plans to introduce a local tool, which will be available to people working with children and young people, to identify their individual needs and provide support ahead of assessment. The ICB further advises that it is looking at creating additional assessment appointments over the next two years, while it develops a longer-term plan to create neurodiversity services which are fit for the future and provide all local people with the support they need.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of dementia diagnosis rates in (a) England and (b) Dorset.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate (DDR) to the national ambition of 66.7%, which in England, at the end of February 2025, was 65.4%. To support the implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, we have developed a memory service dashboard to support commissioners and providers with appropriate data on the diagnostic pathway and enable targeted support where needed.
To aid dementia diagnosis and provision of support in care homes, NHS England has funded an evidence-based improvement project to fund two trusts in each region (14 sites) to pilot the Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate protocol. Learning is currently being shared and promoted with regional and local partners following an impact assessment of the pilots.
Published data collated in February 2025 shows that the South West region has diagnosed 61.2% of the expected prevalence. The current DDR in Dorset is 57%. Dorset Integrated Care System is finalising a formal Dementia Diagnosis Review with the aim of establishing a fully co-produced model, from pre-diagnosis to post-diagnosis, to improve the offer to their local population.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 improve ambulance waiting times in (a) Bournemouth West constituency, (b) Dorset, (c) the South West and (d) England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ambulance services in Bournemouth West, Dorset, and the South West are provided by the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, with commissioning responsibility for the services being a matter for the local NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board. Specific local actions to reduce ambulance waiting times should be undertaken and agreed locally by National Health Service organisations in the best interests of the local population and patients.
At a national level, the Government and NHS England are committed to improving ambulance response times. The NHS 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance set national priorities, which include improving accident and emergency waiting times and ambulance response times compared to 2024/25.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 help reduce waiting times for NHS services in Bournemouth West constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have wasted no time in getting to work cutting National Health Service waiting lists and ensuring people have the best possible experience during their care, including in the Bournemouth West constituency. We promised change, and we’ve delivered early, with a reduction in the list of over 190,000 pathways, and two million extra appointments provided.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015.
The newly published Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of maternity services in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The maternity services at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) have made many improvements since the most recent Care Quality Commission inspection in 2022. Maternity is moving from St Mary’s in Poole to the Beach building at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in April. This is part of the £500 million investment across UHD’s hospitals to help improve healthcare for the residents of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and beyond.
Since September 2024, the service has become Maternity and Neonatal, working as one department to ensure families in Dorset have the most joined up care. UHD has recruited all obstetric and neonatal consultant posts and continues to have excellent retention rates for midwives and neonatal nurses. UHD have also introduced more senior midwifery posts in the last two years, to ensure more senior support on the labour ward and within its audit and practice development team.
Nationally, we continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow our maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women receive safe, compassionate care. We are also looking at how we better support trusts failing on maternity care to make rapid improvements, and we are already training thousands more midwives to better support women throughout their pregnancy and beyond.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 improve NHS maternity services (a) nationally and (b) in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The maternity services at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) have made many improvements since the most recent Care Quality Commission inspection in 2022. Maternity is moving from St Mary’s in Poole to the Beach building at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in April. This is part of the £500 million investment across UHD’s hospitals to help improve healthcare for the residents of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, and beyond.
Since September 2024, the service has become Maternity and Neonatal, working as one department to ensure families in Dorset have the most joined up care. UHD has recruited all obstetric and neonatal consultant posts and continues to have excellent retention rates for midwives and neonatal nurses. UHD have also introduced more senior midwifery posts in the last two years, to ensure more senior support on the labour ward and within its audit and practice development team.
Nationally, we continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow our maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women receive safe, compassionate care. We are also looking at how we better support trusts failing on maternity care to make rapid improvements, and we are already training thousands more midwives to better support women throughout their pregnancy and beyond.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the uplift will be to general dental service contracts for 2024-25; and what his planned timetable is to apply such uplift.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent pay review body for doctors and dentists recommended a 6% pay uplift for 2024/25. The Government accepted the recommendation and has proposed that National Health Service primary care dentistry contract values be uplifted by 4.64%, net of pay (6%) and expenses (1.68%) elements.
The Government is acting to consider and implement the overall uplift to contract values as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children aged four and under have been admitted to hospital for tooth extraction due to decay in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following tables show the number of Finished Consultant Episodes for tooth extraction, with caries as the primary diagnosis code, from 2018/19 to 2022/23:
| Age 0 to 4 years old |
2022/23 | 4,383 |
| Age 0 to 5 years |
2021/22 | 7,496 |
2020/21 | 4,441 |
2019/20 | 10,581 |
2018/19 | 11,397 |
Source: the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ annual statistics on tooth extractions, available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hospital-based-tooth-extractions-in-0-to-19-year-olds
Data in 2022/23 was reported for the age band zero to four years old. However, data for all previous years was reported for the age band zero to five years old. The data is reported as the number of Finished Consultant Episodes, therefore the data does not represent the number of individual children who received these treatments, as one child may have had more than one Finished Consultant Episode.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 improve (a) access to and (b) the provision of NHS dentistry in Bournemouth West constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. In the 24 months to June 2023, 245,772 adults saw an NHS dentist in the Dorset ICB, equal to 39% of the adult population in the ICB. In the 12 months to June 2023, 73,084 children saw an NHS dentist in Dorset, equal to 51% of the child population in the ICB.