Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department plans to take to (a) improve retention of and (b) reduce staff turnover among prison officers.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
A core part of our prison safety and reform plan is the recruitment of an additional 2,500 prison officers. In 10 of our most challenging prisons we have already started a recruitment programme, and I am pleased to say that we have already made 348 job offers for those 400 jobs, on top of 1,400 new officer appointed in the last 12 months.
To address the relatively higher numbers of new officers who leave in the first year, we are improving the support that applicants and new prison officers receive, so that they have the opportunity to explore and understand the role of the prison officer before applying and supporting them through to the completion of their training and probation. At 30 of our most challenging recruitment sites we will be giving prison governors greater freedoms to hire the staff right for them, with the expertise and skills they need.
In respect of established staff, higher staffing levels are set to improve the supervision of prisoners, operational resilience and staff engagement with prisoners; all of which will improve prison safety and encourage experienced staff to stay. The percentage of experienced staff is higher now than it was in 2010.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to improve access to affordable dentistry services.
Answered by David Mowat
Overall access to National Health Service dentistry continues to increase. 22 million adults were seen by dentist in the 24 month period ending 30 September 2016 and 6.7 million children were seen by a dentist in the 12 month period ending 30 September 2015, this represents 51.3% of the adult population and 57.9% of the child population. The latest GP patient survey (January - March 2016) also showed that nationally 93% of patients who had tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last 24 months were successful.
New ways of providing care are being trialled to further improve oral health and increase access, by preventing as well as treating disease, so freeing up resource. Alongside this a new programme, the Starting Well Programme, is being developed to work in 13 high needs areas to improve access to dental services for children known to be at greater risk of dental disease.
NHS dental treatment remains affordable. All children receive free NHS treatment. Charges for NHS treatment for adults remain heavily subsidised and there is also partial help with charges for those on low incomes.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average length of hospital waiting time was in 2016 for those who suffered a stroke.
Answered by David Mowat
The information requested is not available centrally.
The vast majority of admissions following a stroke are emergency admissions rather than elective admissions. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data for elective waiting times from decision to admit to admission is not available for stroke patients. HES publishes waiting times data for a first diagnosis in accident and emergency, however, stroke data is not available.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many stroke patients were offered speech therapy (a) nationally and (b) in Worcestershire in 2016.
Answered by David Mowat
The Stroke Sentinel Audit Programme (SSNAP) collects data on the rehabilitation that patients get in hospital and when they are discharged in to the community, including on speech and language therapy (SALT).
The following data is taken from SSNAP.
Nationally, during the 11 months from January 2016 to November 2016, 74,488 patients were hospitalised with stroke; of these 37,207 received input from SALT (49.9%).
For South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), 310 patients were admitted with 105 receiving SALT (34%). For Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG, 171 patients were admitted with 58 receiving SALT (34%). For Wyre Forest CCG, 122 patients were admitted with 45 receiving SALT (37%).
This data is available on the SSNAP website at:
www.strokeaudit.org
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote enrolment in mental health training of training medical practitioners.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Health Education England is working in partnership with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, to ensure that all foundation programme trainee doctors have up to date Mental Capacity Act training as part of the Foundation Programme Curriculum.
HEE will publish a workforce strategy shortly laying out how to implement the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and Future in Mind.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with the Department for Communities and Local Government on the role of rural enterprise zones in the Midlands growth engine.
Answered by Andrew Percy
As the Department responsible for Enterprise Zones and the Government’s lead on the Midlands Engine, we consider Enterprise Zones and Food Enterprise Zones to have an important role in stimulating growth in our rural economy, attracting investment and jobs to the Midlands Engine area.
Two Enterprise Zones in predominantly rural areas of the Midlands Engine have helped to attract businesses and new investment from around the world. Five Food Enterprise Zones in Greater Lincolnshire, Melton and Wychavon will be working to attract investment and encourage greater collaboration between British food and farming businesses.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average classroom size was in 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This information is published annually. The most recent figures can be found in table 6 of the statistical first release available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2016
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on promotion of tolerance and respect for all communities.
Answered by David Jones
DCLG leads on integration and cohesion and is involved in many fora with communities affected by intolerant attitudes within in the UK. My department works with DCLG on a wide range of issues, including community cohesion. The Cross-Government Hate Crime Programme brings together officials, criminal justice agencies, victims and communities and has maintained oversight of hate crime during 2016 to ensure responses have been swift and effective.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with NHS trusts on their recruitment plans for filling vacant posts.
Answered by Philip Dunne
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health meets with National Health Service partners on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues, including ensuring that trusts have enough doctors and nurses to ensure they can deliver safe, high quality care.
On 25 August 2016, NHS Digital published the NHS Vacancy Statistics for England, which shows number of full time equivalent advertised vacancies placed on NHS Jobs, the online recruitment service for the NHS. The publication showed that at 31 March 2016 the total number of full time equivalent advertised vacancies was 26,424. It is important to note that an advert might cover multiple vacancies or an ongoing recruitment programme and adverts can also be placed by NHS sub-contractors and local authorities so not all adverts will be for jobs in the NHS. Therefore, the data should be seen as a proxy as it only shows the minimum number of vacancies advertised.
The latest workforce data published by NHS Digital on 20 December 2016 showed that as at September 2016 there are 561,839 professionally qualified clinical staff working in the NHS, an increase of over 29,300 (5.5%) since May 2010.
The Department set up Health Education England (HEE) to deliver a better health and care workforce for England. HEE is responsible for ensuring that there is a secure workforce supply for the future by balancing need against demand and taking into account factors such as the age profile of the existing workforce, the impact of technology and new drugs.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information her Department holds on the average number of applicants received for prison officer vacancies.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
A core part of our prison safety and reform plan is the recruitment of an additional 2,500 additional prison officers. In 10 of our most challenging prisons we have already started a recruitment programme. I am pleased to say that we have already made over 300 job offers for those 400 jobs, on top of 1,400 new officers appointed in the last 12 months.
The information requested is not held centrally.