Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to help improve public awareness of organ donation.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) promotes organ donation in a number of ways including Organ Donation Week in September and the ‘Leave them Certain’ campaign.
NHSBT launched a multi-channel campaign to inform the public of the change to an opt-out system for organ donation in May 2020. Figures indicated 75% of the population were aware of the law change in December 2020.
NHSBT’s Community Investment Scheme has a specific focus on engaging with Black and South Asian communities. The programme supports 35 grassroot, community and faith-based organisations to raise awareness of organ donation, seven organisations have received a share of £100,000 funding for living donation.
Since September 2021, organ donation and transplantation has been taught as part of the secondary school curriculum in England, aimed at promoting awareness in young people.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to use the £5.9 billion NHS COVID recovery funding, announced at the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, to tackle the backlog in assessments for disabled children’s health services.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
On 6 September 2021 we announced over £8 billion for the National Health Service to provide elective care that was delayed by the pandemic for the Spending Review period 2022/23 to 2024/25. We also announced an additional £5.4 billion to support the COVID-19 response over the next six months, bringing the total Government support for health services in response to COVID-19 to over £34 billion in 2021/22. This includes £2 billion to tackle the elective backlog and reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available to people with the cost of purchasing a blood pressure monitor where GPs require patients to take blood pressure readings at home.
Answered by Jo Churchill
NHS England and NHS Improvement are supporting local systems to facilitate patients to remotely manage their blood pressure, where appropriate. Approximately 200,000 monitors have been made available for distribution.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that every disabled child with an Education, Health and Care plan can access therapies, health appointments and other services when required.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health service therapies to disabled children. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s guidance makes clear that essential community services, including therapeutic support, must be prioritised for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities aged up to 25 years old and who have an Education Health and Care Plan in place or who are going through an assessment.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
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 tackle social isolation experienced by disabled children and their families during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In 2020/21 we allocated £3.6 million to voluntary and community sector organisations to support autistic people, people with a learning disability and disabled people, including disabled children and their families, throughout the pandemic. This funded services providing direct, practical support for their physical and mental wellbeing including learning and play opportunities for disabled children to help combat social isolation and accessible arts, sports and wellbeing activities for children and adults with complex disabilities. In addition, through the ‘COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing recovery action plan’, we have invested over £31.5 million in organisations supporting people who experience loneliness, refreshed our Let’s Talk Loneliness campaign, and brought together a Tackling Loneliness Network.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allow up to six visitors to a care home resident at any one time if that visit is outdoors as restrictions are eased during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We published updated guidance on visiting in care homes on 22 April, which states every care home should ensure that each resident can nominate up to two named people who can have regular, indoor visits. Those residents with higher care needs can also nominate an ‘essential care giver’ who will have the same testing and personal protective equipment arrangements as care home staff so that they can also provide extra support, such as help with washing and dressing or eating well. We want to go further and allow more visitors, where the data tells us it is safe to do so.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to bring forward legislation to criminalise controlling or coercive behaviour by people providing psychotherapy or counselling services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We have no plans to do so.
Anyone seeking out the services of a psychotherapist or counsellor can check that they are on an Accredited Voluntary Register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). The PSA provides assurances of voluntary registers of health and care professionals and currently accredits 10 registers relating to psychotherapy and counselling covering around 50,000 talking therapy professionals.