Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is piloting a four week waiting time for access to specialist mental health treatment for children and young people in 12 areas of England as an integral part of the implementation programme for the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper. The pilots will inform a recommendation to the Government on the potential development of access and waiting-time standards for all children and young people who need specialist mental health services.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 level up mental health and wellbeing services in the City of Wolverhampton.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Black Country and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) advises that across Wolverhampton, all registered patients have access to mental health and wellbeing services. A Joint Public Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Wolverhampton has been developed by the local authority and the local CCGs covering all tiers of service provision and support for all ages.
There is programme of work to put in place a common and standard service in the Black Country to eliminate any variations in existing mental health delivery.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 ensure the equitable distribution of mental health and wellbeing services across the city of Wolverhampton.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of (a) access to weight management services and (b) home working during periods of national restrictions as a result of the covid-19 outbreak on the prevalence of obesity.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England (PHE) has conducted qualitative research on the changes to weight management services during the first lockdown period. The research found that the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced access to weight management services with face-to-face services suspended. The impact of remote provision on client engagement and uptake appeared to be variable in England. PHE currently has no data available on the impact of the pandemic on population obesity prevalence as data collection on national surveys has largely been suspended due to the pandemic.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 develop holistic treatment for people living with dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Personalised care and support planning is supported by ‘Dementia: Good Care Planning – information for primary care and commissioners’ which sets out the development of care and support planning following an initial holistic assessment of a person’s health and well-being needs within the context of their whole life and family situation. The guide is available at the following link:
This holistic approach is also set out in ‘Dementia wellbeing in the COVID-19 pandemic’ resource which sets out the adjustments and amendments needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is available at the following link:
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Integrated Care Systems will be required to evaluate the effectiveness of local measures introduced to tackle obesity.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Integrated care boards will be directly accountable for the spend and performance of the services they commission, including local measures to reduce obesity.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Public Health England's, Health Matters: Prevention - A Life Course Approach, published in May 2019, what steps his Department is taking to promote regular (a) physical and (b) mental exercise.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In summer 2020, Public Health England launched the ‘Better Health’ programme with a high-profile television, radio and digital campaign to support the nation to take simple steps to look after their physical and mental health. The Better Health programme directs people to evidence-based apps and tools to support them make and sustain changes to improve their health. This includes the NHS 12-week Weight Loss app, Couch to 5K, Mind Plan and Active 10.
In 2019, the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers issued guidelines on the amount and type of physical activity we should aim to do at each stage of our lives. The guidelines reinforce the importance of muscle strength and cardiovascular activities across all age groups for better physical as well as mental health and wellbeing.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding is available to local community groups as part of the Government's strategy to encourage healthy and active lifestyles.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 ensure that people (a) from a BAME background and (b) who are more vulnerable to covid-19 receive the vaccination in a timely manner.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
On 13 February the Government published the United Kingdom COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Plan, which aims to improve uptake across all communities on a national scale, including those from black, Asian or other minority ethnic backgrounds and those who are more vulnerable to COVID-19. The plan takes a local, community-led approach, with support provided from the Government, NHS England and NHS Improvement and local authorities to coordinate and enable action.
On 25 January we released £23.75million funding to support our Community Champions Scheme. Through the Community Champions scheme councils and voluntary organisations will deliver a wide range of measures to communicating accurate health information. The funding is specifically targeted at areas with plans to reach groups such as older people, disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who according to the latest evidence are more likely to suffer long-term impacts and poor outcomes from COVID-19. Each of the sixty councils in receipt of funding have developed their own plan to improve communications with these groups including helplines, school programmes, workplace engagement, phoning those in at risk groups as well as training sessions to help people provide information and advice. On 24 February 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine deployment programme, working with partners, made available an extra £4.2 million initially, to further support and enable locally led community engagement in all areas with health inequalities to support those who are most vulnerable to get their vaccine.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 public confidence in the covid-19 vaccination programme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department, the National Health Service and Public Health England, are providing advice and information at every possible opportunity to support those getting the vaccine and those who have questions about the vaccination process. Our communications include targeted information and advice via TV, radio and social media. This has been translated into 13 languages. Print and online material has also been made available, including interviews, and practical advice has appeared in hundreds of national, regional, local and specialist titles.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS are holding regular meetings with local authorities, faith leaders and black, Asian and minority ethnic organisations to provide advice and information about COVID-19 vaccines and how they will be made available. New campaigns will help tackle vaccine misinformation online through a series of shareable videos.