Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
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 make eye tests mandatory for primary school children.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no plans to make eye tests mandatory for primary school children. The UK National Screening Committee recommends vision screening in school for children aged four to five years old, to look for reduced vision in one or both eyes.
In addition to vision screening, free sight tests are widely available for children under 16 years old and under 19 years old in full time education. Free sight tests are also being made available for children and young people with special educational needs, attending special educational settings across England, where those settings choose to host a service.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take in the context of trends in the level of competition for training places in postgraduate medical training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware that competition ratios for speciality training have grown in recent years, and that this is causing concern across the medical profession.
As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan published on 3 July, we will work across Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period for specialty training.
We will also ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.
We will publish a new 10 Year Workforce Plan later this year, to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
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 merits of including incontinence in medical training for all healthcare professionals.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. The standard of training for healthcare professionals is the responsibility of the independent statutory regulatory bodies who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses. Higher education institutions 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 emphasise the skills and approaches a healthcare professional must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients, including for incontinence.
Employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver safe and effective treatment for patients.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
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 increase funding for mental health services for children.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services, including support for children.
The 2025 Spending Review confirmed that we will fulfil our commitment to provide access to mental health support within schools in England by expanding mental health support teams to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30. This expansion will ensure that up to 900,000 more children and young people will have access to support from trained education mental health practitioners in 2025/26.
Additionally, we are continuing to provide top-up funding of £7 million to the 24 Early Support Hubs to expand their services, and we are also taking part in an ongoing evaluation of these services in 2025/26. This new funding will enable the supported Early Support Hubs to deliver at least 10,000 additional mental health and wellbeing interventions, so that more children and young people are supported.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the 10-year health plan will include policies on (a) community equipment services and (b) the timely provision of community care equipment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, creating a truly modern health service designed to meet the changing needs of our changing population. Moving care from hospitals into the community and putting the building blocks in place to enable this to happen is at the heart of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether residential treatment for severe gambling addiction will (a) continue to be funded by his Department after commissioning for treatment services is moved to the NHS and (b) be funded through a statutory gambling levy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2025, the new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect to fund the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm. NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities continue to work closely together to develop their gambling programmes in their respective roles as treatment and prevention commissioner during this transition year.
NHS England continues to work at pace to take on commissioning responsibility for the full treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. Evidence- based commissioning decisions will be made to ensure optimal treatment modalities.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered increasing the threshold from which people must pay for their own care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The capital limits and the social care allowance rates are reviewed annually and the rates for 2025/26 were published in the Local Authority Circular in February 2025.
We are launching an independent commission into adult social care later this month as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. It will lead a national conversation to build consensus on what adult social care should achieve, address systemic challenges comprehensively, and chart a clear path toward practical and impactful reform.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
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 increase the allied health professional workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan, which will be published in summer 2025, will deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and will ensure that the National Health Service has the right people, including allied health professionals, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to commission research into new cardiovascular treatments.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government, through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) is committed to funding high quality, timely research that leads to improved outcomes for patients and the public and makes the health and social care system more efficient, effective, and safe. Research evidence is vital for improving treatments and outcomes for people, including those with cardiovascular disease.
The Department is proud to invest £1.5 billion per year on health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Over the past five financial years between 2019/20 and 2023/24, the NIHR has invested £145.4 million on cardiovascular disease and stroke research directly through NIHR research programmes. Our wider investments in NIHR infrastructure, including strengthening specialist facilities, workforce, and support services to enable research in the health and care system, have enabled significant cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke research funded by other funders to take place.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including CVD. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of women’s health hubs on health disparities in the treatment of (a) endometriosis, (b) polycystic ovary syndrome, (c) other menstrual health conditions and (d) other women’s healthcare.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Women’s health hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services in the community, centred on meeting women’s needs across their life course. Hubs have potential to have a positive impact on reducing inequalities in treatment of menstrual health conditions including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham, RAND, and the Cambridge Rapid Evaluation Centre conducted a scoping evaluation of women’s health hubs established between 2001 and 2022. The report was published in September 2024, and it identified reducing inequalities and improving quality of care as key aims of women’s health hub pilots. The report found that hub leaders were committed to reducing inequalities and many were implementing strategies to do so, but noted that evidence on hub benefits was still evolving.
The report highlights that the impact on inequalities could be determined through a set of measures, one of these being diagnosis for conditions such as endometriosis. The report is available at the following link:
https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/JYFT5036/#/abstract
The Department has invested £25 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the establishment of at least one pilot women’s health hub in every integrated care system, with one of the aims being to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities. Care for menstrual problems, including PCOS and endometriosis, is included as a core service for these pilot hubs.