Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what interim support his Department is providing to integrated care boards in relation to NHS dentist shortages in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are determined to rebuild National Health Service dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions.
Integrated care boards have started to advertise posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS, a central part of which will be our workforce. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 increase the number of available NHS dental appointments in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Ashfield constituency, this is the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB is expected to deliver 24,360 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of access to NHS dental care in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dental Statistics - England 2023/24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
In the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, which includes the Ashfield constituency, 42% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months to June 2024, compared to 40% in England, and 60% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months to June 2024, compared to 56% in England.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 improve access to healthcare for the elderly population in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that patients are finding it difficult to see a general practitioner (GP), and we are committed to bringing back the family doctor so patients with complex conditions and the elderly population receive the care they deserve. We have invested an additional £889 million in GPs and, through the 2025/26 GP Contract, have incentivised primary care networks (PCNs) to improve continuity of care.
The Enhanced Health in Care Homes framework is a key contractual requirement for PCNs, ensuring coordinated healthcare services for care home residents across the country. Under the terms of this framework, all residents must have a comprehensive assessment of need completed and personalised care and support plans put in place within seven days of admission or re-admission to a care home, and all care homes must have a weekly home round supported by a multidisciplinary team.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to reduce NHS waiting times in Ashfield.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care, including in the Ashfield constituency. We have already exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, with three million more delivered between July 2024 and January 2025.
In Ashfield, Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board has been working with local National Health Service trusts and independent sector providers to secure additional capacity to see, diagnose and treat patients; review all waiting times; reduce any inequity of waits; and support patient choice.
We have also increased diagnostic capacity in Ashfield through investment in new computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scanners and reducing wasted appointments through improved communication with patients. This has resulted in waits for diagnostic tests improving significantly, contributing to improvements in the overall waits for diagnosis and treatment. It has also led to a reduction in the number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for surgery and improvements in the number of patients who are seen and treated within 18 weeks.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help shorten waiting times for dementia diagnoses.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A timely diagnosis is vital to ensuring that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care, and support that can help them to live well and remain independent for as long as possible.
We remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%. The Government is also committed to transforming diagnostic services, including the detection and diagnosis of dementia, and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computerized tomography scanners.
The Dementia Care Pathway: Full Implementation Guidance, commissioned by NHS England, outlines the dementia care pathway and the associated benchmarks to support improvements in the delivery and quality of care and support. It showcases good-practice examples of services that have successfully reduced their waiting times. Further information is available at the following link:
To support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rates and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, NHS England has developed a dashboard for management information purposes. The aim is to support commissioners and providers of memory services with appropriate data and enable targeted support where needed.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional support to carers of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that families have the support that they need.
Local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers and carers of people with Parkinson’s disease.
To support unpaid carers, on 7 April 2025 the Government increased the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage. This represents the largest increase in the earnings limit since the Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.
We are also providing support for unpaid carers. The Better Care Fund can be used for unpaid carer support, including short breaks and respite services for carers. The Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) has also provided a total of £42.6 million to support innovation and scaling in adult social care. More than half of the ARF projects are focused on identifying, recognising, and supporting unpaid carers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost was of providing translation services in his Department in the last year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department uses external suppliers to meet its requirements for translation and interpretation services. In the 2024 calendar year, the cost to the Department was £16,833.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 the provision of healthcare jobs for British born medical graduates.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to growing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join our National Health Service.
Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS employers. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
Internationally educated staff remain an important part of the workforce, and our Code of Practice for International Recruitment ensures stringent ethical standards when recruiting health and social care staff from overseas.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what diversity, equality and inclusion targets his Department has for staff recruitment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have any diversity, equality, or inclusion targets for recruitment. The Department does, however, aim to ensure that its staff are drawn from all walks of life and are representative of the public it serves.