Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24, published in July 2019, what progress she has made on achieving 100% coverage of 24/7 age-appropriate crisis care via NHS 111.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The National Health Service is on target to deliver 100% coverage across England of age-appropriate mental health crisis care 24 hours a day, seven days a week via NHS 111 by April 2024. The urgent and emergency care recovery plan reiterated this commitment and timescale. Delivering this commitment will enable anyone experiencing mental health crisis to access age-appropriate assessment and, if appropriate, onward referral and treatment at any time of the day by calling NHS 111 'select mental health option'.
In preparation for national launch in April 2024, NHS England asked all systems to transition to offering access to age-appropriate crisis support via NHS 111 ‘select mental health option’. This will act as a soft launch that will flush out and enable automated phone systems to address any issues as and when they occur, before the national launch date.
For those with severe needs or in crisis, urgent mental health helplines are already available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in all areas of England and currently take approximately 200,000 calls a month.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 work with Cabinet colleagues to deliver a joined-up approach to suicide prevention.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published on 11 September 2023, is a multi-sector and cross-Government strategy, with actions from a wide range of organisations that will be delivered over the next five years. Suicide prevention is everybody’s business, and a joined-up approach is essential to achieving this. The strategy is a call for action for national and local government, the health service, the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector, employers and individuals to tackle suicide.
We have worked across Government departments to develop this strategy and will continue to do so in order to deliver the actions within it. As part of this, the Government will take a leading role in tackling methods of suicide, collaborating with partners across the world in policy, law enforcement and society more broadly to limit access, reduce awareness, and share research, evidence and lessons learned. We are also working with NHS England and professional bodies to improve suicide prevention signposting and support to people in contact with primary care services.
We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions in seeking opportunities to improve the Government’s role in supporting employers to improve the support they provide for the mental wellbeing of themselves and their employees.
In November 2023 we launched a new nationwide near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system that will improve the early detection of and timely action to address changes in suicide rates or trends.
We are also working together with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and local authorities to explore opportunities for improving data collection and data sharing in all areas.
More generally, we work closely with local government via the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ regional leads network, and we have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them to align their own strategies with the national strategy.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding she has committed to the National Suicide Prevention strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Through the NHS Long Term Plan we are investing £57 million in suicide prevention by March 2024, and all local areas now have suicide prevention plans to address the specific needs of their populations.
In addition, the Government’s £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund will run from 2023 to March 2025 to support voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to deliver suicide prevention activity.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to work with local government to deliver a joined-up approach to suicide prevention.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published on 11 September 2023, is a multi-sector and cross-Government strategy, with actions from a wide range of organisations that will be delivered over the next five years. Suicide prevention is everybody’s business, and a joined-up approach is essential to achieving this. The strategy is a call for action for national and local government, the health service, the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector, employers and individuals to tackle suicide.
We have worked across Government departments to develop this strategy and will continue to do so in order to deliver the actions within it. As part of this, the Government will take a leading role in tackling methods of suicide, collaborating with partners across the world in policy, law enforcement and society more broadly to limit access, reduce awareness, and share research, evidence and lessons learned. We are also working with NHS England and professional bodies to improve suicide prevention signposting and support to people in contact with primary care services.
We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions in seeking opportunities to improve the Government’s role in supporting employers to improve the support they provide for the mental wellbeing of themselves and their employees.
In November 2023 we launched a new nationwide near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system that will improve the early detection of and timely action to address changes in suicide rates or trends.
We are also working together with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and local authorities to explore opportunities for improving data collection and data sharing in all areas.
More generally, we work closely with local government via the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ regional leads network, and we have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them to align their own strategies with the national strategy.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 hospitals in England have not completed the Government survey of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
All National Health Service trusts responded to the survey and data collection commissioned by NHS England across May and June 2023.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 reduce waiting times for gender dysphoria treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
It is important that transgender people can access the care they need when they need it. NHS England has increased investment by approximately 130% over the past five years and increased the number of Gender Dysphoria Clinics in England from seven to 12 with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020.
NHS England is also taking steps to grow the historically small pool of specialist clinicians working in this field. The United Kingdom’s first accredited post-graduate training credential in gender medicine overseen by the Royal College of Physicians was established in 2020. There is also funding for individual fellowships available for surgeons who want to train in gender reassignment surgery.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 reduce waiting times for specialist gender identity services for children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Earlier this year, NHS England announced that the children’s gender identity services provider, GIDS Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, will be brought to a managed close, and replaced by two new Southern and Northern hubs led by five NHS Trusts, which are set to be fully mobilised by April 2024. NHS England plans for there to be a total of seven or eight regional providers supported by a larger clinical workforce once the national transformation programme is complete. This expansion of services will provide improved, more local care to patients, and reduce waiting times for these services.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of moving gender transition-related healthcare into primary care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Children and adults experiencing gender incongruence require specialist support. NHS England's gender identity services are specialised services, due to the specific clinical expertise required to effectively support people experiencing gender incongruence. The Royal College of General Practitioners has published its advice on this matter, saying that general practitioners (GPs) are not experienced in treating and managing gender dysphoria, noting that is not part of GP training nor part of the GP curriculum.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing NHS guidance to allow people aged between 65 and 70 on 1 September 2023 to have the shingles vaccination.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government’s policy on groups eligible for vaccination programmes is based on the recommendations of the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and the scope and speed of any rollout is decided between UKHSA, the Department and the National Health Service.
There are no plans to review the age criteria for the shingles vaccine roll out. The current policy is aligned with the expert advice of the JCVI and has enabled the shingles programme to offer a more effective vaccine to more people. As part of the changes the offer has increased to include more of those who are most vulnerable, including anyone who turned 65 before 1 September 2023.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits to patient safety of a national alert system to (a) flag unsafe levels of workload and (b) allow GPs to access additional support.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
It is for integrated care boards to work with practices to determine appropriate local escalation processes for periods of increased demand. We are working to reduce unnecessary workload and cut bureaucracy for general practice staff by implementing the Bureaucracy Busting Concordat, improving the interface between primary and secondary care, and streamlining the Investment and Impact Fund, and we are building capacity in the system by recruiting larger multidisciplinary teams. There are now over 31,000 full-time equivalent additional primary care professionals in post compared to March 2019.