Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 access to shared care arrangements for adults diagnosed with ADHD.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has established to look at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) service provision and support across sectors, and their impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD including timely access to services and support.
General practitioners (GPs) are independent contractors that provide services for the National Health Service. The General Medical Council has published guidance on “Good practice in proposing, prescribing, providing and managing medicines and devices content”. This includes guidance on shared care arrangements between a specialist service and the patient’s GP to help GPs decide whether to accept shared care responsibilities for any condition. The guidance is available at the following link:
NHS clinicians need to be content that any prescriptions, or referrals for treatment, are clinically appropriate. All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so even where agreements are in place, practices can decline shared care requests on clinical and capacity grounds.
If a shared care arrangement cannot be put in place after the treatment has been initiated, the responsibility for continued prescribing falls upon the specialist clinician; this applies to both NHS and private medical care.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will amend the key performance indicator for waiting times for children’s mental health services to include the length of time between referral and the start of treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is working towards implementing the clinical review of standards and as a first step have started publishing data on waits from referral to start of treatment.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 help improve waiting times for children’s mental health services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are too long. As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England to cut waiting times and ensure that people can access treatment and support earlier.
We will also provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England and introduce open access Young Futures hubs in every community.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 ensure local authorities complete timely financial audits of social care providers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care services are provided through a largely outsourced market of commercial organisations and charities. Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to develop and build local market capacity.
That is why, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets, and ensure that people have a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support options available to them, and that they can access the services that best meet their needs.
Local authorities also have a duty under the Care Act 2014 to ensure continuity of care in the event of business failure. This means that people continue to receive the care and support they need if their adult social care provider is no longer able to carry on delivering services.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 impact of the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions on non-profit social care providers for under 65s.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process. To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26. Overall, core local government spending power is increasing by 6.8% in cash terms.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of preventative impact of ear wax removal on the NHS for children presenting with hearing loss.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, an adult or child may require ear wax removal treatment if the build-up of earwax is linked with hearing loss. A general practice could then consider referring the patient into audiology services. The patient's clinician is best placed to make this assessment. The NICE has published guidelines on hearing loss, and specifically on ear wax removal treatment, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng98/chapter/Recommendations#removing-earwax
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will make an assessment of the adequacy of NHS targets for incentivising improvement in patient experience.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first, ensuring that they are seen on time, and that they have the best possible experience while they wait for care. Although no specific assessment has been made of the adequacy of National Health Service targets for incentivising improvement in patient experience, the Government is committed to making improvements. We have an ambitious set of targets that will tackle issues that matter to patients, including returning to the NHS Constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment.
We also want to improve experience for patients living with complex, long-term, or serious illnesses, like cancer. We are committed to meeting all three NHS cancer waiting time standards across England, so that no patient waits longer than they should for cancer diagnosis or treatment.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 data collection on the (a) prevalence and (b) impact on (i) public health and (ii) the NHS of long-term health conditions.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government wants a society where every person, including those with a long-term condition, and their families and carers, receives high-quality, compassionate continuity of care. We will change the National Health Service so that it becomes not just a sickness service, but one able to prevent ill health in the first place. This will help us be better prepared for the change in the nature of disease and allow our services to focus more on the management of chronic, long-term conditions.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions. ICBs are allocated funding by NHS England to meet local needs and priorities, and improve outcomes. NHS England continues to set national standards, service specifications, and clinical access policies, to which ICBs are expected to apply.
We recognise that, in order to ensure the NHS is fit for the future, we must improve care for those with long-term conditions. One of the working groups supporting the development of the 10-Year Health Plan has been asked to develop a vision for how the NHS can evolve to provide responsive, joined-up care to better support individuals with complex health needs who may require frequent, ongoing engagement with the NHS. The group, chaired by Dr Claire Fuller and Caroline Abrahams CBE, will consider what improved care would look like for both individuals living with a single or multiple long-term conditions, including, for example, mental health conditions or disabilities, as well as individuals with multiple complex needs, including those that are frail or approaching the end of their life.
We know that appropriate work is generally good for health and wellbeing. We want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live.
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group, so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, and have a range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, as well as support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.
As part of the Get Britain Working plan, the Government is launching Keep Britain Working, an independent review into the role of United Kingdom employers in reducing health-related inactivity, and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces.
As ICBs are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions, most of the data regarding the prevalence of long-term health conditions is collected at the ICB level, although the 10-Year Health Plan will also be focussing on the improved use of data in the health system, as part of the shift from analogue to digital.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will take steps to establish a cross-departmental long-term conditions taskforce to help (a) improve care for those with long-term conditions and (b) people back into work.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government wants a society where every person, including those with a long-term condition, and their families and carers, receives high-quality, compassionate continuity of care. We will change the National Health Service so that it becomes not just a sickness service, but one able to prevent ill health in the first place. This will help us be better prepared for the change in the nature of disease and allow our services to focus more on the management of chronic, long-term conditions.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions. ICBs are allocated funding by NHS England to meet local needs and priorities, and improve outcomes. NHS England continues to set national standards, service specifications, and clinical access policies, to which ICBs are expected to apply.
We recognise that, in order to ensure the NHS is fit for the future, we must improve care for those with long-term conditions. One of the working groups supporting the development of the 10-Year Health Plan has been asked to develop a vision for how the NHS can evolve to provide responsive, joined-up care to better support individuals with complex health needs who may require frequent, ongoing engagement with the NHS. The group, chaired by Dr Claire Fuller and Caroline Abrahams CBE, will consider what improved care would look like for both individuals living with a single or multiple long-term conditions, including, for example, mental health conditions or disabilities, as well as individuals with multiple complex needs, including those that are frail or approaching the end of their life.
We know that appropriate work is generally good for health and wellbeing. We want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live.
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group, so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key.
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, and have a range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, as well as support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.
As part of the Get Britain Working plan, the Government is launching Keep Britain Working, an independent review into the role of United Kingdom employers in reducing health-related inactivity, and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces.
As ICBs are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions, most of the data regarding the prevalence of long-term health conditions is collected at the ICB level, although the 10-Year Health Plan will also be focussing on the improved use of data in the health system, as part of the shift from analogue to digital.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 ensure that measures to improve the management of long-term conditions are included within the NHS 10 year plan.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The number of individuals living with long term conditions is expected to rise significantly over the next decade. Currently, the National Health Service operates a model focused on treating acute episodes, organised around fragmented services rather than holistic patient needs. To ensure the NHS is fit for the future, we must improve care for those with long-term conditions.
One of the working groups supporting the development of the 10-Year Health Plan has been asked to develop a vision for how the NHS can evolve to provide responsive, joined-up care to better support individuals with complex health needs, who may require frequent, ongoing engagement with the NHS. The group, chaired by Dr Claire Fuller and Caroline Abrahams CBE, will consider what improved care would look like for both individuals living with a single, or multiple long-term conditions, including, for example, mental health conditions, or disabilities, as well as individuals with multiple complex needs, including those that are frail or approaching the end of their life.
Starting with the patient perspective, we have asked this group to consider what people of all ages want and need from services across the NHS to manage their condition or conditions on an ongoing basis, and what the care offer should look and feel like in practice, so that the NHS can empower patients, enhance their self-management capabilities, and promote independence through a holistic, person-centred and responsive service.