Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
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 ensure that health and social care professionals are trained in Parkinson’s-related dementia care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of the health care independent statutory regulatory bodies. They set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses and Higher Education Institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators outcome standards.
Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all nevertheless emphasize the skills and approaches a health care practitioner must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients, including for dementia.
Individual employers across health and social care are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role, and for investing in the future of their staff by providing continuing professional development (CPD) funding. The required training needs are set out in the Dementia Training Standards Framework, which is available at the following link:
https://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/info-hub/dementia-2015-updated-2018/
The framework was commissioned and funded by the Department, and developed in collaboration with the sector. It sets out the essential knowledge, skills, and expected learning outcomes applicable across the health and care spectrum.
It is applicable to health and social care staff who work with people living with dementia, staff providing direct care and support, and those who provide leadership in transforming care, including social care managers and leaders.
To supplement local National Health Service employer investment for CPD, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out NHS England’s commitment to continue national CPD funding for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals. There are a variety of resources available on the NHS England e-learning for health platform, designed to enhance the training and education of the health and social care workforce. This includes a programme on dementia care, and modules in Parkinson’s disease in geriatric medicine.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to publish details on how the NHS long-term workforce plan will be implemented.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have established a Long Term Workforce Plan Governance Board which will ensure the delivery and review the progress of the Long Term Workforce Plan’s implementation. The modelling NHS England has used in the plan is founded on data, evidence, and analysis and provides a set of broad ranges to measure the potential impact of actions over its 15 year timeframe. We have committed to refreshing the modelling that underpins the plan every two years, or in line with fiscal events.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will include steps to help tackle regional variations in access to Parkinson’s specialist care.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It covers the majority of NHS workforce groups, including those working on Parkinson’s disease. The LTWP commits to working closely with systems to consider the best approaches to reviewing the geographical distribution of training posts for wider professional groups.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence next plans to review the entry criteria for its highly specialised technologies programme for the evaluation medicines to treat very rare diseases.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence plans to review the criteria for determining whether a medicine should be routed to its highly specialised technologies programme later this year.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many appraisals for medicines to treat very rare diseases were started through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence highly specialised technology programme in each financial year since 2018-19.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) shows the number of highly specialised technology evaluations that started in each year since 2018/2019:
Year | Invitations To Participate |
2018/19 | 4 |
2019/20 | 2 |
2020/21 | 3 |
2021/22 | 7 |
2022/23 | 8 |
2023/24 | 4 |
Total | 28 |
Note: The term started has been defined as when the NICE sent the invitation to participate.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has held discussions with NHS England on the need for a dedicated and specific cancer plan.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department works closely with NHS England on a wide range of issues relating to cancer, and to deliver the key priorities on cancer as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. Current priorities include work on improving cancer survival rates through earlier diagnosis, and reducing cancer treatment waiting times across England, including the time between an urgent general practice referral and the commencement of treatment. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
On 14 August 2023, the Government published a strategic framework for the Major Conditions Strategy to consider the six conditions, including cancer, that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England. This is because we recognise that most cancer patients will have at least one other condition, so we are developing a Major Conditions Strategy that will include cancer. The Major Conditions Strategy will apply a geographical lens to each condition, to address regional disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to recruit an additional 2,000 radiotherapy professionals by 2040.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In June 2023, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver a workforce that meets the changing needs of the population, over the next 15 years. The plan recognises the need to increase numbers of allied health professionals (AHPs), including therapeutic and diagnostic radiographers. To address this, we will increase AHP training places from a little over 15,000 in 2021/22 to 17,000 by 2028/89, and then 18,800 by 2031/32, a total increase of approximately 25%. National funding is available to train 150 enhanced practice radiographers a year, to support the diagnosis of cancer and other conditions.
We have already seen increases in the radiotherapy workforce in NHS trusts and other care organisations in England. In November 2023, there were 894 full-time equivalent (FTE) consultants working in the specialty of clinical oncology, an increase of 40, or 4.6%, since November 2022 and 395, or 79.0%, since November 2010. There are also 3,141 FTE therapeutic radiographers, an increase of 133, or 4.4%, since November 2022 and 1,046, or 50.0%, since November 2010. We are also focused on improving cancer treatment, and are supporting advances in radiotherapy, such as using cutting-edge imaging and technology to help target radiation doses at cancer cells more precisely.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with Integrated Care Boards in England on replacement programmes for radiotherapy machinery (LINACS); and what mechanisms are in place to allow her Department to oversee the effectiveness of those replacement programmes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health Service, from 2022 to 2025.
The Government and NHS England are already taking steps to ensure that cancer patients can receive high quality radiotherapy treatment across England. This includes supporting advances in radiotherapy, using cutting-edge imaging and technology to help target radiation doses at cancer cells more precisely.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Elective recovery taskforce: implementation plan, published on 4 August 2023, what steps she is taking to ensure equity of access for those unable to use digital platforms.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In September 2023, NHS England published a framework for action on digital inclusion to help the system design and implement inclusive digital approaches and technologies, including actions to build digital skills and capability among patients and National Health Service staff. This covers all NHS digital platforms. Patients unable to use digital channels will continue to be able to access services via telephone and through face-to-face services.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to increase access to NICE-approved treatments for patients with inflammatory skin conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new licensed medicines and licence extensions for existing medicines including any treatments for inflammatory skin conditions and aims to issue guidance on their use close to the time of licensing wherever possible. The National Health Service in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within 90 days of the publication of its final guidance. NICE has recommended a number of treatments for inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema, hidradenitis suppurativa and psoriasis that are now routinely available for NHS patients.