Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will take further steps to take into account the views of friends and primary care givers who are not relatives where appropriate when end of life care is being managed by health professionals.
Answered by David Mowat
On 5 July, the Government set out its plans to improve end of life care in the Government response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care. It set out the Government’s commitment to everyone at the end of life, including that everyone should be able to expect the involvement of their family, carers and those important to them such as close friends in their care, to the extent they wish them to be.
All staff involved with dying people must be capable of having difficult conversations about death and dying, take the time to listen carefully to what dying people and those important to them say, and provide opportunities for developing, reviewing and updating personalised care plans with dying people. Health and care providers delivering this care must ensure that staff have the time and space to achieve this.
NHS England is working with two New Care Model sites of Airedale and Southend to test an innovative approach to ‘serious illness conversations’ in which clinicians are trained to support people with serious illnesses to discuss what is important to them, treating these discussions as a clinical intervention which delivers patient-centred care.
Health Education England (HEE) is developing a refreshed core competency framework to standardise end of life care training and working with partners to strengthen the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula to support patient choice and improve quality of care.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to provide support to prison governors providing care for the well-being of prison officers.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
NOMS is committed to provide safe, decent and secure places of work and takes the health, safety and wellbeing of its employees extremely seriously. We recognise that the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of employees is paramount to attracting and retaining our staff that will build a strong and capable organisation. We aim to achieve this by engaging with our employees to provide good quality advice and support, promote responsibility for personal health and nurture a feeling of organisational pride.
In terms of direct support for our staff in NOMS, we have access to an Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programme that provides a wide range of support arrangements including: comprehensive employee assistance provision which includes 24 hour access to signposting and counselling on a wide range of issues; Trauma Support services; a wide ranging health promotion website and personal wellbeing zone including advice on weight management and stress management solutions. NOMS staff can also self-refer for confidential counselling, up to a maximum of six sessions in any 12 month period. The helpline is open for staff to do this 24 hours, 365 days a year. NOMS has adopted the Health and Safety Executive Stress Management Standards and the NOMS Stress Toolkit has been developed for use by both managers and staff as appropriate. There are also a number of resources available to support staff from Civil Service Learning including an online resilience package.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides to borough councils that have accepted refugee families to ensure successful integration into the community.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government provides information and support to areas participating in the resettlement of refugees and works with a wide range of partners including local authorities and civil society organisations to ensure that people are integrated sensitively into local communities.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage young adults to engage in team sports in their local communities.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government is committed to getting more young people from all backgrounds engaging in sport and physical activity, including team sports. Last year government published a new strategy, 'Sporting Future', which sets out a number of important actions that will ensure that all young people can benefit from engagement in sport and physical activity
Sport England will be investing in team sports through its new programmes designed to support the people who regularly play sport, and programmes designed to tackle inactivity.
Community sports teams will also be able to benefit from Sport England’s new Community Asset Fund, which will make £7.5 million of National Lottery funding available to support community clubs to modernise or expand their facilities.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure charitable workers and volunteers are safe from harassment and abuse.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Government is absolutely clear that harassment and abuse in whatever form and whoever the target is totally unacceptable. This includes harassment committed in person, or using phones or the internet.
There is a robust legal framework to tackle offline and online harassment and abuse provided by the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and offences in the Malicious Communications Act 1998 and the Communications Act 2003.
New Authorised Police Professional Practice on stalking and harassment is currently being developed by the College of Policing, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate will shortly be commencing a joint inspection of how stalking and harassment are handled by police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), including the service received by victims.
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 has taken to ensure that employers provide a working environment which is conducive to the good mental health of their employees.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Employers already have to take certain actions to comply with health and safety and equality laws, but it is also important to build healthy, inclusive workplaces. Government supports them to do so through schemes such as Access to Work, which supports the disability-related needs of individuals in the workplace; and Fit for Work, which provides a free, expert, impartial work and health advice service for employers, and a targeted occupational health assessment for employees who are off sick for four weeks or more.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to make available fairer funding to families in Worcestershire.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We will introduce a national funding formula for early years from the financial year 2017-18. A consultation on the early years formula closed on 22 September and we will set out our response later this autumn.
We will introduce national funding formulae for schools and high needs from the financial year 2018-19. We are considering the options carefully, taking into account the need to give schools and local authorities stability. We will put forward our detailed proposals later in the autumn, including our proposals for the transition to the formulae. Following a full consultation, we will make final decisions and confirm the arrangements in the new year.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how his Department plans to ensure that the interests of manufacturers are enhanced by the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government will do whatever is needed to safeguard the economy, forge a global new role for ourselves as we leave the European Union and make Britain a country that truly works for everybody. The Department is in on-going dialogue with businesses and trade organisations to understand concerns and identify opportunities from EU withdrawal for the manufacturing sector right across the UK.
Through our Industrial Strategy we will continue to support and grow our successful manufacturing businesses and encourage the development of industries of the future as part of creating an economy that works for all.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to prevent cases of mental ill-health among combat veterans.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence takes the mental health of its personnel very seriously. Maintaining good levels of mental health and wellbeing is achieved using a "through life approach" and the application of a wide range of measures based around a model of prevention, early detection and treatment. No system can guarantee to detect every individual at risk of a mental health problem. Nevertheless, measures are in place to increase awareness at all levels, including pre- and post-operational stress management training, a wide range of psychiatric and psychological treatments, and initiatives such as Trauma Risk Management. We are working hard to reduce the stigma that can be attached to mental health issues, and to encourage people to come forward. The Army's "Don't Bottle It Up" campaign is one such initiative.
We also provide a wide range of effective treatments for those who need them. In Iraq and Afghanistan, we deployed uniformed mental health nurses to provide in-theatre care and treatment for our personnel. Theatres were visited by consultant psychiatrists every three months or so, who provided clinical and administrative support.
In the UK, we have a network of military Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs), that are located to be convenient for major centres of military population, and that support the provision of healthcare that is available through Service primary care facilities. A wide range of clinically-approved psychiatric and psychological treatments are available, including medication, psychological therapies, and environmental adjustment where appropriate. If required, in-patient care is provided in dedicated psychiatric units through a central contract with an external provider.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many ex-servicemen and women are currently participating in the Veterans and Reserves Mental Health programme in Worcestershire.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
Ex-Service men and women who have deployed since 1982 are eligible to receive assistance from the Veterans and Reserves Mental Health programme (VRMHP), as are reserves who have deployed overseas since 1 January 2003.
All ex-Service personnel referred to the VRMHP will receive a full psychiatric assessment by a Consultant Psychiatrist. This assessment report is then sent on completion to their NHS GP and/or local NHS clinical team with advice on further treatment and care. Since April 2016, this assessment has been provided at the individual’s nearest Ministry of Defence Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH), which for individuals in Worcestershire would most likely be the facility at Donnington, in Shropshire.
From September 2013, referrals to the VRMHP during each 12-month period are as follows:
| Sep 2013 – Aug 2014 | Sep 2014 – Aug 2015 | Sep 2015 – Aug 2016 |
Veterans | 112 | 130 | 186 |
Reserves | 52 | 34 | 25 |
% NHS GP referred | 25% (75% self) | 65% (30% self) | 95% (none self) |
Fewer than five referrals in the above table are recorded as having come from Worcestershire during the most recent 12-month period.
As the table shows, many referrals to the VRMHP initially came from individuals who self-referred. Since 2015, the VRMHP has strongly encouraged all veterans to obtain an NHS GP referral first, in order to obtain a ‘medically informed’ referral. This has meant in years 2015-2016 almost all referrals have come from the NHS GP, with a small proportion (about 5%) coming from NHS secondary mental health services or Service charities.