Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase (a) internal expertise and (b) capacity in the New Hospitals Programme in (i) technical design and (ii) programme delivery.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As is usual for major Government programmes, the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) is using both internal and external resources to ensure the right capabilities and specialist skills are in place to deliver the programme. The NHP is procuring its long-term delivery partner, which will provide flexible external expertise in technical design, commercial functions, programme delivery capabilities, and other areas.
The NHP is developing a Knowledge and Skills Transfer (KST) Strategy to embed the self-sustaining knowledge and skills required to deliver the programme, ensuring that as the balance within the team changes, the appropriate transfers take place.
The NHP continues to support its employees' development and regularly reviews the Learning and Development offer available across the programme, to support staff in the successful delivery of the programme. This includes supporting staff within the NHP, and Project Directors from NHS England trusts, to take advantage of the Government’s Project Academy by participating in the Project Leadership Programme and Major Projects Leadership Academy.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of nursing associates who completed training in 2023-24.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested. As a guide to the scale of nursing associates completing training, the number of nursing associates joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register for the first time is published twice a year by the NMC. The latest available data, to September 2023, is available at the following link:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of staff working in the NHS who will be eligible to access extended childcare support.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific estimate has been made.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of Help to Buy scheme leaseholders unable to sell their homes due to the lack of an EWS1 form.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Further to the answer I gave to Question UIN 22128 on 25 April 2024, Homes England (who manage the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme on behalf of government) are not aware of customers who have recently been prevented from selling without an EWS1 form and have worked with customers to source other evidence if it was not available (such as Fire Safety Certificate or online case evidence). We would welcome any information which suggests otherwise.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve recruitment and retention to deliver her Department's integrated one workforce approach.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out how we will meet the workforce needs of the future, through increasing training numbers and reforming training, working differently, and taking action to retain more staff. The plan recommends that integrated care boards (ICBs) and wider system partners prioritise actions that drive recruitment and retention of multi-disciplinary teams, in a one workforce approach.
There are a number of key national programmes aimed at supporting regions, ICBs, and providers with recruitment challenges, in growing the workforce. For example, the Overhauling Recruitment programme aims to overhaul and modernise National Health Service recruitment by encouraging innovation and wider access into NHS careers, supporting the growth of a diverse and skilled workforce to meet future demands on healthcare. NHS England will soon be engaging with ICBs and providers to support and enable this transformational change, as it prepares to publish the overhauling recruitment strategic delivery framework.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan also sets out how to improve culture and leadership to ensure that up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the NHS over the next 15 years. Key to this is the National Retention Programme. The programme builds on the NHS People Promise, and supports integrated care systems (ICSs), which are made up of ICBs and integrated care partnerships, regions, NHS trusts, and organisations, to improve employee experience and retain their people, and thereby reduce the NHS staff leaver rates.
Support for organisations and ICSs can be accessed via the Retention Hub, which outlines initiatives mapped against the People Promise, access to tools, guides, and case studies to enable improvements and contact details for regional colleagues support the retention agenda in each of the seven regions. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/looking-after-our-people/the-programme-and-resources/
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have taken the accredited NHS Strategic Workforce Planning course through the Chartered Institute of Professional Development.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of clinicians who started advanced practice pathways in 2023-24.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of Help to Buy scheme leaseholders who are out of the five year interest free loan period.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Data is publicly available in the Homes England Annual Report on the total number of Help to Buy loans that have been redeemed, and a breakdown of how many loans were taken out in each parliamentary constituency is available on the following websites:
Help to Buy (equity loan scheme): data to 31 May 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Homes-England-Annual-Report-and-Financial-Statements-2022-to-2023.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on funding for sexual health clinics.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services that meet the local demand, and these include online and face to face provision of advice and interventions. Individual local authorities decide on spending priorities based on an assessment of local need for sexual health services, as well as the blend of service access that best suits their population.
In 2024/25 we are allocating £3.6 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual health services, through the Public Health Grant. This will provide local authorities with an average 2.1% cash increase compared to 2023/24. No specific discussions on funding for sexual health clinics have been held with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of sexual health clinics which offer cryotherapy treatment.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dedicated local sexual health services play a key public health role in diagnosis, early treatment, and management of sexually transmitted infections, cryotherapy being one form of treatment for genital warts. Individual local authorities are responsible for commissioning decisions about the sexual health services, to best meet the needs of their local populations, including providing open-access sexual health testing and treatment services. The Department has not assessed the number of sexual health clinics which offer cryotherapy treatment.