Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 ensure that NHS documents are available in (a) large print, (b) braille and (c) other accessible formats for patients with visual impairments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act 2010, health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.
Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. This includes providing information in alternative formats such as large print and braille.
NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 raise the minimum reference range for vitamin B12 serum levels to 500 pmol/L.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The assessment and clinical management of vitamin B12 falls under the remit of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In March 2024, the NICE published the guidance, Vitamin B12 deficiency in over 16s: diagnosis and management, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng239
The guidance provides thresholds in table 1 to guide diagnosis. There are no plans to update this guidance at present.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 the diagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency and reduce the number of cases misdiagnosed as (a) dementia, (b) chronic fatigue syndrome and (c) psychiatric conditions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidance in March 2024 on the diagnosis and management of vitamin B12 deficiency in over 16 year olds. The guidance is available at the following link:
http://nice.org.uk/guidance/ng239
It provides guidance to clinicians on recognising the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, outlines the recommended diagnostic tests that should be carried out if vitamin B12 deficiency is suspected, and provides guidance on how to interpret the results from the diagnostic tests. Clinicians adhering to this guidance will help to minimise the number of B12 deficiency cases misdiagnosed as dementia, chronic fatigue syndrome, psychiatric conditions, or any other health condition.
The NICE’s guidance is informed by clinical expertise, is evidence-based, and represents best practice. Healthcare professionals are expected to pay due regard to NICE guidance, although NICE guidelines are not mandatory and do not supersede the judgement and clinical discretion of clinicians in determining the most appropriate treatment for their patients.
The NICE promotes its guidance via its website, newsletters, and other media. Healthcare professionals are responsible for ensuring that their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date, and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the NICE.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes in the level of staff overtime pay rates in emergency departments on (a) the quality of patient care and (b) the retention of senior clinical staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made this specific assessment. Where national rates for overtime are applicable in England, these are set out in the national terms and conditions, and no recent changes have been made to these provisions, nor are there planned to be. Where pay for additional work is set at a local level or where local providers agree overtime rates that are different to those in the national terms and conditions, this would be considered a local matter.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 potential impact of closing the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund on organisations engaged in suicide prevention activities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Suicide Prevention Grant Fund came to an end on 31 March 2025, as planned from the outset of the grant. There are currently no plans to run another grant fund.
Voluntary and community sector organisations play a valuable role in suicide prevention, including supporting the delivery of the cross-sector national suicide prevention strategy for England. We will be evaluating the impact of the fund, and the services that have been provided by the grant-funded organisations. Learning from this evaluation will help to inform the delivery of the Government’s mission to reduce the lives lost to suicide.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England has spent on (a) drug and (b) alcohol treatment in (i) prisons, (ii) young offender institutions, (iii) immigration removal centres and (iv) other secure settings in the last three financial years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A detailed analysis of NHS England’s spend on drug and alcohol treatment in prisons, young offender institutions (YOIs), immigration removal centres (IRCs), and other secure settings is not available at the level requested. This is because mental health and substance misuse are not necessarily individual contracts and, in most instances, are part of combined total healthcare contracts. Therefore, we are only able to report combined figures for both mental health and substance misuse treatment. The following table shows the combined costs of mental health and substance misuse treatment in the secure estate, from 2021/22 to 2023/24:
Schedule of mental health and substance misuse in secure settings | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Mental health and substance misuse in adult prisons | £205,900,000 | £195,700,000 | £211,000,000 |
Mental health and substance misuse in YOI's and other youth secure settings | £13,600,000 | £13,000,000 | £18,300,000 |
Mental health and substance misuse in IRC's | £2,800,000 | £4,300,000 | £4,700,000 |
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to introduce statutory regulation for (a) counsellors and (b) psychotherapists to help ensure minimum standards of (i) training, (ii) supervision and (iii) professional conduct.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to extend statutory regulation to therapists and counsellors, and no recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of the lack of statutory regulation on patient safety.
When considering which professions should be protected in law the Government is clear that the level of regulatory oversight must be proportionate to the risks to the public, and that statutory regulation of healthcare professionals should only be used where the risks to public and patient protection cannot be addressed in other ways, such as through employer oversight or accredited voluntary registration. Decisions about which professions are regulated, and which professional job titles are protected, are made by the Government and by Parliament.
Health professionals that are not subject to statutory regulation can join voluntary registers accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The Government would encourage anyone accessing mental health services to use a practitioner who is subject to statuary regulation or voluntary registration accredited by the PSA.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 help prevent people without accreditation from offering paid counselling services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to extend statutory regulation to therapists and counsellors, and no recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of the lack of statutory regulation on patient safety.
When considering which professions should be protected in law the Government is clear that the level of regulatory oversight must be proportionate to the risks to the public, and that statutory regulation of healthcare professionals should only be used where the risks to public and patient protection cannot be addressed in other ways, such as through employer oversight or accredited voluntary registration. Decisions about which professions are regulated, and which professional job titles are protected, are made by the Government and by Parliament.
Health professionals that are not subject to statutory regulation can join voluntary registers accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The Government would encourage anyone accessing mental health services to use a practitioner who is subject to statuary regulation or voluntary registration accredited by the PSA.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of levels of statutory regulation of (a) counsellors and (b) psychotherapists on patient safety.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to extend statutory regulation to therapists and counsellors, and no recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of the lack of statutory regulation on patient safety.
When considering which professions should be protected in law the Government is clear that the level of regulatory oversight must be proportionate to the risks to the public, and that statutory regulation of healthcare professionals should only be used where the risks to public and patient protection cannot be addressed in other ways, such as through employer oversight or accredited voluntary registration. Decisions about which professions are regulated, and which professional job titles are protected, are made by the Government and by Parliament.
Health professionals that are not subject to statutory regulation can join voluntary registers accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The Government would encourage anyone accessing mental health services to use a practitioner who is subject to statuary regulation or voluntary registration accredited by the PSA.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the future of NHS continuing healthcare will form part of the scope of the (a) NHS 10-year Health Plan for England and (b) Casey Commission.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have committed to developing a 10-Year Health Plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future. It will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of health and care needs.
The independent commission into adult social care, to be chaired by Baroness Casey, is part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission will start a national conversation about what people expect from adult social care. The commission will be split over two phases. The first phase, reporting in 2026, will focus on how we can make the most of existing resources to improve people’s lives over the medium term. Phase two, reporting by 2028, will then consider the long-term transformation of adult social care, setting us on the road to fundamental reform that will build a social care system fit for the future.