Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on pay uplifts for NHS staff for the 2025-2026 financial year; and what steps he is taking to engage with UNISON to resolve disputes to NHS pay structure.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 22 May 2025, the Government announced that it was formally accepting the 2025/26 headline pay recommendations for National Health Service staff in England from the NHS Pay Review Body, the Review Body on Doctors and Dentists Remuneration, and the Senior Salaries Review Body. These awards will be backdated to 1 April 2025, and staff can expect to receive their awards from August.
All Agenda for Change (AfC) pay points in England will be uplifted by 3.6% for 2025/26. We have also accepted the recommendation to provide the NHS Staff Council with a funded mandate to deliver changes to the AfC pay structure. We will work with the NHS Staff Council so that we can implement the changes by 1 April 2026.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 providing free Covid-19 vaccine boosters to people with long Covid.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The JCVI stated in its advice for the autumn 2024 COVID-19 vaccination programme that there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the impact of additional vaccine doses, beyond the primary vaccination, on the risk, progression, and outcome of post-COVID syndromes. The JCVI advised that better data is needed on the impact of additional vaccine doses on the occurrence and severity of post-COVID syndromes in the current era of omicron sub-variants of the COVID-19 virus, and high population immunity. This advice is available at the following link:
On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programmes in spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice is available at the following link:
The Government has accepted the JCVI’s advice on eligibility for the spring 2025 COVID-19 vaccination programme, to include those aged 75 years old and above, those aged six months old or above with immunosuppression, and those living in care homes for older adults. The Government response is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advice-accepted-on-spring-2025-covid-19-vaccination-programme
The Government is considering the advice for autumn 2025 and spring 2026 carefully, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 support people with long Covid.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has invested £314 million since the start of the pandemic to provide care and support for people with long COVID. This includes establishing specialist clinics throughout England to assess adults, children, and young people who are experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19 infection. A further £86.7 million of funding was included in integrated care board core allocations for 2024/25, and specific regional funding was also allocated for assurance and system support.
These services offer physical, cognitive, and psychological assessment, and, where appropriate, refer patients onto existing services for treatment and rehabilitation. Further information can be found via the National Health Service website, at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/post-covid-syndrome-long-covid/
Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council, we have invested over £57 million on research into long COVID, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID. The funded projects aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical care.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 there are sufficient specialist training programmes for resident doctors to continue with their training to become (a) consultants and (b) GPs in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.
We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where the need is greatest.
To reform the NHS and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of the Government’s five long-term missions. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 (a) help ensure equitable access to care for people diagnosed with interstitial lung diseases and (b) support local health services to improve (i) immediate and (ii) long-term care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The commissioning responsibility for interstitial lung disease (ILD) services has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs), to facilitate joined up care and the configuration of services that will meet local needs.
Early and accurate diagnosis is a priority for NHS England, and the work to improve this area of clinical care is underway, which should have an impact on reducing delayed diagnosis of ILD. The Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group is looking to update the national service specification during 2025/26, and this refresh will include an Equality Health Impact Assessment to support local implementation. The specification will cover diagnosis, management, and ongoing care for patients with ILD.
NHS England also funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments for ILD. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s technology appraisal, Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, in November 2021.
Furthermore, pulmonary rehabilitation plays an important role in the management of patients with ILD and should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention, not just those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To better understand the uptake of this intervention, NHS England is aiming to modify the current National Asthma and COPD Audit Programmes so that conditions other than COPD are included, and service availability can be tracked.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long service users in (a) Broxtowe, (b) Nottingham and (c) the East Midlands are waiting for dyslexia assessments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on waiting times for dyslexia assessments is not held centrally.
Assessments for dyslexia in children are currently provided by an educational psychologist or an appropriately qualified specialist dyslexia teacher. If a parent thinks their child may be dyslexic, as a first step they should speak to their child’s teacher or their school's special educational needs co-ordinator about their concerns. They may be able to offer additional support to help the child if necessary.
Adults who wish to be assessed for dyslexia are advised to contact a local or national dyslexia association for advice. Further information on dyslexia assessments is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/diagnosis/
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long service users in (a) Broxtowe, (b) Nottingham and (c) the East Midlands are waiting for ADHD assessments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for assessment and diagnosis for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nationally or for individual organisations or geographies in England. Although the data requested is not held centrally, relevant information may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts or commissioners.
We are supportive of a taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD including timely access to services and support.
In conjunction with the taskforce, NHS England has carried out detailed work to develop a data improvement plan, understand the provider and commissioning landscape and capture examples from integrated care boards who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to undertake a review of NHS service users' right to choose a provider for ADHD.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to patients having the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. This is a legal right for patients set out in legislation.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the right to choose an ADHD practitioner is still active in Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients, including those in Nottinghamshire, have the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. Further information on the choices available for patients can be found on the NHS Choice framework, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long service users in (a) Broxtowe, (b) Nottingham and (c) the East Midlands are waiting for (i) Autism assessments and (ii) overall SEND assessments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on autism assessments is not held centrally in the format requested, but may be held by individual providers or integrated care boards (ICBs). Some relevant information is available on autism assessment waiting times for the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB and the Midlands commissioning region.
In the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB, the Autism Waiting Time Statistics published by NHS England show that there were a total of 6,120 patients of all-ages with an open suspected autism referral in December 2024, the latest available data. The median waiting time of all patients in this ICB with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was in the quarter, was 244 days in December 2024.
In the Midlands commissioning region, the Autism Waiting Time Statistics show that there were a total of 58,445 patients of all-ages with an open suspected autism referral in December 2024. The median waiting time of all patients in the Midlands commissioning region with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was in the quarter, was 352 days in December 2024.
Caution should be used when interpreting these statistics since they are experimental rather than official statistics.
Schools decide whether a pupil has additional needs that warrant them being on the school's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities register. Some relevant information on waiting times for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities is available from the GOV.UK website, from Education, health and care plans: England 2024, with the latest data available being from 2023. In Nottingham,
TARGET DATE 05/03/2025
67.1% of EHCPs, including exceptions, were issued within 20 weeks and in the East Midlands 40.4% of EHCPs, including exceptions, were issued within 20 weeks.