Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the results of NHS England’s Diabetes Digital Coach Wave 1 Test Bed in the West of England Academic Health Science Network will be published; and what steps are being taken to replicate the successes of that project throughout the health service.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Independent evaluations were undertaken for all Wave 1 Test beds, including for the Diabetes Digital Coach Test Bed. The successes and lessons learned from the test beds were disseminated locally by the Test Bed’s project teams and NHS England have published key reports on findings around undertaking evaluations and information governance.
These findings have been incorporated in the design of Wave 2 of the Test Beds programme which is funding a further seven sites, including three sites focussed on the self-management of type 2 diabetes.
The Evaluation Learning from Wave 1 document is available at the following link:
The Information Governance Learning Handbook is available at the following link:
More information on Wave 2 Test Beds can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/test-beds/
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Diabetes Specialist Nurses (DSN) were employed in each Health Education England (HEE) region and (b) how many DSN training places were funded by HEE in each year since 2009-10; and what steps he is taking to employ more DSNs in the NHS.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Information on the number of diabetes coaches and diabetes specialist nurses who are employed in each Health Education England (HEE) region is not held centrally.
Information on the number of training places funded by HEE for diabetes coaches and diabetes specialist nurses is not held centrally.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to continue to support local health systems to address inequality of access to multidisciplinary foot care teams and specialist nursing support for people who have diabetes.
NHS England has made £80 million transformation funding available to clinical commissioning groups and sustainability transformation partnerships during 2017/18 and 2018/19 to deliver a programme focused on reducing variation and improving outcomes for people with diabetes.
£9.8 million has been made available to put in place 30 new or expanded diabetes inpatient specialist nurse teams, reducing the lengths of hospital stays for people with diabetes through reducing medication errors and advising on effective treatment.
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many diabetes coaches were employed in each Health Education England (HEE) region and (b) how many diabetes coaches training places were funded by HEE in each year since 2009-10; and what steps he is taking to employ more diabetes coaches in the NHS.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Information on the number of diabetes coaches and diabetes specialist nurses who are employed in each Health Education England (HEE) region is not held centrally.
Information on the number of training places funded by HEE for diabetes coaches and diabetes specialist nurses is not held centrally.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to continue to support local health systems to address inequality of access to multidisciplinary foot care teams and specialist nursing support for people who have diabetes.
NHS England has made £80 million transformation funding available to clinical commissioning groups and sustainability transformation partnerships during 2017/18 and 2018/19 to deliver a programme focused on reducing variation and improving outcomes for people with diabetes.
£9.8 million has been made available to put in place 30 new or expanded diabetes inpatient specialist nurse teams, reducing the lengths of hospital stays for people with diabetes through reducing medication errors and advising on effective treatment.
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Government is taking to ensure that Diabetes Specialist Nurses (DSNs) have sufficient time to support patients with more complex needs and (b) what estimate he has made of the proportion of DSNs’ time taken up supporting such patients.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The information requested is not centrally held.
Transformation funding for inpatient diabetes specialist nurse teams will serve to increase capacity and time available to support patients with more complex needs.
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of diabetes clinics provide access to a Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) phone line; and what steps his Department is taking to guarantee access to a DSN phone line to all diabetes patients.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The information requested is not centrally held.
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning diabetes services and technologies for their local populations including access to diabetes specialist nurse phone lines. They are also expected to take National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines into consideration when making their decisions.
Asked by: Liz McInnes (Labour - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that Diabetes Specialist Nurses have (a) sufficient time to take part in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses, (b) basic introductory training in the latest diabetes technology and (c) online access to all training and CPD courses.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is in the best interests of employers to encourage and support the learning and development of their employees. Any agreements, such as protected study time, would need to be negotiated between the employer and its employees.
Individual health professionals, including diabetes specialist nurses, have responsibility to own and manage their own learning to ensure they meet the continuing professional development (CPD) standards to remain registered with the regulatory body.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) require 35 hours of CPD relevant to scope of practice as a nurse or midwife in the three year period since registration was last renewed, or joining the register. The NMC does not prescribe any particular type of CPD, it is up to registered nurses to decide what activity is most useful for their development as a professional. A range of free online training resources for National Health Service staff are available at the e-Learning for Healthcare website at the following link:
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding Chair of NHS Improvement, working closely with Sir David Behan, Chair of Health Education England, to oversee the delivery of a workforce implementation plan. This will include proposals to grow the workforce, consideration of additional staff and skills required, building a supportive working culture in the NHS and how to ensure first rate leadership for NHS staff. This will include consideration of the workforce aspects of clinical priorities, including diabetes.