Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what specialist dementia support will be available in neighbourhood health centres to support people with dementia in the community following a hospital stay.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Neighbourhood Health Service will bring together teams of professionals closer to people’s homes to work together to provide comprehensive care in the community. We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations, and so they could include dementia specialist nurses. While we will be clear on the outcomes we expect, we will give significant licence to tailor the approach to local need. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, that will mean the service will look different in rural communities, coastal towns, or deprived inner cities.
Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We would expect ICBs to commission services, which may include dementia specialist nurses/admiral nurses, based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. NICE recommends providing people living with dementia with a single named health or social care professional who is responsible for coordinating their care.
Under the 10-Year Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services. We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to introduce a National Services Framework for dementia.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10 Year Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services.
We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
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 potential merits of including a national services framework for dementia as part of the NHS 10-year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs, including people living with dementia. We are carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department provides to the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding for the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy will be confirmed when the strategy is published in the coming months.
Health does make an important contribution to tackling violence against women and girls. For example, NHS England spent £52.8 million on the provision of sexual assault and abuse services in 2023/24. Figures for more recent years are not yet available. The Department also funds the ongoing collection of data on female genital mutilation attendances in the National Health Service.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to make an assessment of the capacity to deliver Early Access Programmes for people with motor neurone disease.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Companies may put in place Early Access Programmes (EAPs) to allow early access to new medicines that do not yet have a marketing authorisation. Participation in EAPs is decided at an individual National Health Service trust level and under these programmes, the cost of the drug is free to both the patients taking part in it, and to the NHS, although NHS trusts must still cover administration costs and provide clinical resources to deliver the EAP.
NHS England does not undertake any initiatives to encourage participation in EAPs, which are the responsibility of individual pharmaceutical companies and subject to decision-making by individual NHS trusts.
There are no common clinical, data, or regulatory standards for company-sponsored EAPs, meaning each one demands a new protocol to be devised and delivered by each participating trust, which can create significant pressures on clinical and financial resources. Companies providing a sponsored EAP also reserve the right to limit or to close registration of new patients at any time, meaning that any financial and clinical investment made by trusts to establish an EAP could be undermined by a commercial decision that would most likely happen in the event of a negative decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
NHS England has published guidance for integrated care systems (ICS) on free of charge (FoC) medicine schemes, including EAPs, providing advice on potential financial, resourcing, and clinical risks.
ICSs should use the guidance to help determine whether to implement any FoC scheme, including assessing suitability and any risks in the short, medium, and long term. The guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
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 improve (a) patient access to and (b) staff retention in NHS dentistry in Leigh and Atherton constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments from April 2025 and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of local populations has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For Leigh and Atherton constituency, the relevant body is NHS Greater Manchester ICB.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of re-evaluating the Units of Dental Activity formula.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to National Health Service dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
There are no perfect payment systems and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system, so that we deliver a system better for patients and the profession.
We are continuing to meet with the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
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 (a) diagnostics and (b) treatment pathways for people with long covid.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no diagnostic tests for long COVID currently approved for use in the United Kingdom, and clinicians must rule out other conditions which present with similar symptoms to diagnose long COVID. Researchers are also working to identify blood-based biomarkers as the basis for diagnostic tests and targets for treatments.
Over the last five years, the Government, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council, has invested over £57 million in long COVID research, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID.
This includes clinical trials to test and compare different treatments, and to improve our understanding of long COVID and how health professionals can accurately diagnose the condition. This research has improved the evidence base for clinicians in testing for and treating long COVID.
To support clinical leadership in this area, NHS England has worked in partnership with the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine to develop a new Clinical Post-COVID Society to facilitate the ongoing sharing of best practice and to support people affected by long COVID. Further information about the society is available at the following link:
https://www.clinicalpcs.org.uk
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to help increase dementia diagnosis rates to pre-Covid-19 levels in Leigh and Atherton constituency.
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 recovery of the DDR and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, we have developed a dashboard to provide appropriate data and enable targeted support where needed.
To reduce variation in diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
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 with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to establish full clinical guidelines for the (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of people with Tourette's syndrome.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has established a prioritisation board that takes decisions on which topics should be prioritised for the development of a clinical guideline, in line with the routing criteria set out in the NICE’s published prioritisation framework, and through engagement with experts and other interested parties. The prioritisation board is currently considering Tourette’s and tic disorders as a possible topic for guideline development, however no final prioritisation decisions have been made yet.
The NICE has produced guidance on suspected neurological conditions, which includes recommendations on treatment for tics and involuntary movements in adults and children. The guidance can be found at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng127/
The NICE is also developing an Early Value Assessment on digital therapy for chronic tic disorders and Tourette syndrome, and currently expects to publish final guidance in May 2025.