Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 move people with learning disabilities and autism out of long-stay inpatient units and into community care settings.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for Children and Young People’s keyworkers.
On 14 July 2022 we published the Building the Right Support (BtRS) Action Plan which brings together actions across government and public services to strengthen community support and reduce overall reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
The BtRS Delivery Board is responsible for overseeing implementation of the BtRS Action Plan.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Women’s Health Strategy for England, published on 30 August 2022, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help tackle the financial burdens faced by the LGBTQ+ community when accessing IVF treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Funding decisions for health services in England, including IVF, are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
The Women’s Health Strategy contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to National Health Service-funded fertility services, which included improving access to IVF for female same-sex couples by removing the additional financial burden they face when accessing treatment. We expect this to take effect during 2023.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 support people living with Huntington’s disease.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
NHS England plans to improve the support for Huntington’s disease and other neurological conditions through continued developments to neuroscience services.
Specialised elements of neurology care are currently provided through the 25 specialised neurological treatment centres across England to ensure that people with more complex health needs, including those with Huntington’s, receive the best possible care and support.
The NHS England Neuroscience Transformation Programme is developing a number of optimal pathways for neurology services. The transformation programme will provide integrated care systems with the tools, information and resources that they will need to drive the transformation in their neurology services, as they take on joint or delegated responsibility for commissioning specialised neurology services from April 2023 onwards. In addition, the neuropsychiatry service specification is in development. When finalised, this will outline the multi-disciplinary approach to caring for patients with complex neurological conditions who require specialised assessment and mental health support.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 under the Medicines and Medical Devices Act to extend independent prescribing responsibilities to (a) dietitians, (b) occupational therapists, (c) orthoptists, (d) diagnostic radiographers and (e) speech and language therapists where safe and appropriate to do so within the scope of their professional practice.
Answered by Will Quince
Dietitians and diagnostic radiographers can already supply medicines under Patient Group Directions and use supplementary prescribing. Orthoptists can already supply medicines under Patient Group Directions and exemptions which permit certain medicines to be sold, supplied and/or administered to patients.
In 2015, NHS England held a public consultation on proposals to enable radiographers to practise as independent prescribers. This consultation concerned both diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers and ran from 27 February 2015 to 27 May 2015. It is available at the following link:
In December 2021, the Commission on Human Medicines reconsidered this proposal and provided advice to Ministers to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to allow diagnostic radiographers to independently prescribe. There are no current plans to extend medicines responsibilities further for the other professional groups asked about.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 reduce waiting times for cancer treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
To support elective recovery and reduce waiting times, including for cancer treatment, the Government has taken steps by working with NHS England to publish the 'Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care' in February 2022. To deliver this plan, the Government 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. This will further be supported by the additional £3.3 billion of funding in each of the next two years announced at the Autumn Statement to support the National Health Service.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 introduce dietary guidelines to improve awareness of ultra-processed foods.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often or in small amounts.
UK Government dietary guidelines are based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). SACN is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in the summer of 2023.
There is currently no universally agreed definition of ultra-processed foods. However, a diet high in foods classified as processed is often high in calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar and low in fibre, fruit and vegetables, which is associated with an increased risk of obesity and developing chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
The Good Choice badge helps people identify healthier options using the NHS Food Scanner app and when shopping in store and online. The app helps families to see what is in their food and drinks and suggests healthier alternatives, where these exist, that can help them cut down on sugar, saturated fat and salt. The Good Choice badge is underpinned by nutrition criteria that determine which products can display the badge.
The app and wider Better Health campaign supports families on their journey towards having a healthier diet, as making the step to the healthiest option may be too far for many people in one move.
The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funds a range of important research on obesity. This includes a project in the NIHR Obesity Policy Research Unit investigating how families in areas of low income experience food environments and another project investigating factors that drive parental decisions regarding food provision for infants across socio-economic position.
The Healthy Start Scheme supports eligible low-income families to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Recipients are also eligible for free Healthy start vitamins, boosting the long-term health of their children. The value of these vouchers was increased from £3.10 to £4.25 a week in April 2021, ensuring more families can have access to healthy and nourishing foods.
The Department for Education spend over £1 billion each year on free school meals. This includes around £600 million on Universal Infant Free School Meals, where the per meal rate has been increased to £2.41, backdated to April 2022 in recognition of recent cost pressures.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a percentage reduction target for ultra-processed food consumption levels.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often or in small amounts.
UK Government dietary guidelines are based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). SACN is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in the summer of 2023.
There is currently no universally agreed definition of ultra-processed foods. However, a diet high in foods classified as processed is often high in calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar and low in fibre, fruit and vegetables, which is associated with an increased risk of obesity and developing chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
The Good Choice badge helps people identify healthier options using the NHS Food Scanner app and when shopping in store and online. The app helps families to see what is in their food and drinks and suggests healthier alternatives, where these exist, that can help them cut down on sugar, saturated fat and salt. The Good Choice badge is underpinned by nutrition criteria that determine which products can display the badge.
The app and wider Better Health campaign supports families on their journey towards having a healthier diet, as making the step to the healthiest option may be too far for many people in one move.
The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funds a range of important research on obesity. This includes a project in the NIHR Obesity Policy Research Unit investigating how families in areas of low income experience food environments and another project investigating factors that drive parental decisions regarding food provision for infants across socio-economic position.
The Healthy Start Scheme supports eligible low-income families to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Recipients are also eligible for free Healthy start vitamins, boosting the long-term health of their children. The value of these vouchers was increased from £3.10 to £4.25 a week in April 2021, ensuring more families can have access to healthy and nourishing foods.
The Department for Education spend over £1 billion each year on free school meals. This includes around £600 million on Universal Infant Free School Meals, where the per meal rate has been increased to £2.41, backdated to April 2022 in recognition of recent cost pressures.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 improve mental health provision for (a) babies, (b) toddlers, (c) children and (d) young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
At the 2021 Autumn Budget the Government committed to improving support for families by announcing around £300 million to fund a new three-year Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. A significant proportion of this funding has been allocated to support perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationships. We are committed to ensuring that parents and carers can access timely and seamless mental health and relationship support from a baby’s conception.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This will allow an extra two million people by 2023/24, including 345,000 more children and young people, to access National Health Service funded mental health support.
We also provided an additional £79 million in response to the pandemic to expand children’s mental health services in the 2021/22 financial year. This allowed around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services, 2,000 more to access eating disorder services and a faster increase in the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges.
There are currently 287 mental health support teams, covering 26% of pupils, in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issue. Over 500 support teams are planned to be up and running by 2024.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 provision of bereavement support in Ealing Central and Acton constituency for parents and families following baby loss.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government funded the Stillbirths and Neonatal Death charity (SANDs) to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support the roll-out of a National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP). The pathway covers a range of circumstances of a baby loss including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, neonatal death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). As of 1 January 2023, 108 NHS England Trusts (84%) have committed to adopting the nine NBCP standards. 21 Trusts, including London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, are yet to do so, and NBCP England continue to push for their inclusion.