Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to support terminally ill children and their families.
Answered by David Mowat
The Government believes that every person nearing the end of their life should expect a good death and attentive, dignified and compassionate care.
Our publication ‘Our Commitment to you for end of life care: the Government Response to the Review of Choice in End of Life Care (July 2016)’ sets out what everyone should expect from their care at the end of life. There are a number of commitments in relation to children and young people. The Department expects to publish its implementation plan online shortly. We will monitor implementation closely and report on progress in summer 2017 to mark one year on from the publication of the Government response.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage local authorities to contribute more funding to palliative care organisations.
Answered by David Mowat
The Government set out its commitment to everyone at the end of life in the Government response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care and pledged to support local leaders to prioritise and improve end of life care.
Levels of National Health Service funded hospice care provision are determined locally by clinical commissioning groups, and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population. Commissioners should identify any gaps in local provision and put in place service development plans to address this identified need. NHS England is developing a per-patient funding system for palliative care, which will support greater quality and choice in end of life care. The aim has been to ensure that palliative care in all settings, including hospices, is funded fairly and transparently.
The Government also promotes the National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership’s Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: a national framework for local action 2015-2010 which sets out six ‘ambitions’ for local delivery of end of life care. The Partnership encourages Health and Wellbeing Boards, chaired by local authority members, to apply the Ambitions Framework to their local area to ensure everyone receives high quality, compassionate and personalised care.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress the Government has made on protecting the armed forces from persistent legal claims.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
We recently announced our intention for the UK to derogate from the relevant Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in future conflicts, whenever the conditions for doing so are met. This will help protect our military personnel from ECHR-based legal claims, allowing them to take difficult decisions on the battlefield and enable us to spend more of our growing defence budget on equipment rather than lawyers’ fees. We will announce further measures in due course.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to (a) tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools and (b) establish inclusive schools.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government wants to ensure that all schools are safe, inclusive environments where pupils are able to learn and fulfil their potential.
We know that pupils who are, or perceived to be, LGBT are disproportionately affected by bullying. This bullying can have a devastating effect on them, their education and their mental health.
This is why we recently announced a three year, £2.8 million, programme to prevent and address homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will provide seed funding to voluntary sector organisations to provide services to improve the transition between child and adult health services.
Answered by David Mowat
This Department with NHS England, Public Health England and representatives from the voluntary sector has been conducting the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Investment Review, looking at investments in and partnerships with the voluntary sector at both a local and national level. As part of this, we considered the Voluntary Sector Investment Programme, consisting of the Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development and Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund grant schemes and the Strategic Partner Programme. On 19 May the Department published Joint review of partnerships and investment in voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in the health and care sector: Final report produced in partnership by representatives of the VCSE sector and the Department of Health, NHS England, and Public Health England.
We are reshaping the programme to reflect the recommendations in the report and will announce our plans in due course.
The Department has provided over £420,000 in grant funding, covering three years from 2013-14, to Together for Short Lives, the national organisation that represents children’s hospices. The grant supports the Transition Taskforce’s provision of guidance and training to enable good transitions locally between children’s and adult services for those with life-limiting conditions.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that local authorities fulfil their duty to provide short breaks for disabled children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Advisory Team is continuing to offer support and challenge to local authorities to help make sure they meet all of their statutory requirements on SEND, and that quality continues to improve. There are also opportunities through the new Ofsted/Care Quality Commission SEND inspections framework for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND, including their need for short breaks services. Eight local area inspections have taken place since May 2016.
Between April 2015 and March 2016, we awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children, and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing, and taking up short breaks for disabled children. The Department for Education has allocated £200 million funding over the next four years to support innovation and improvement to children’s social work practice. We are currently considering how we can use some of this funding to support local innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children and their families and for making services more accessible.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the planned early years workforce strategy will increase recruitment and improve retention of early years teachers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government recognises the importance of the early years workforce in improving quality and delivering better outcomes for children. That is why we are committed to publishing an early years workforce strategy. The strategy will set out how government will help to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing staff. As part of the strategy government will look at the barriers to growing the body of graduates in the workforce.
The government wants to see more trained graduates in the workforce, and we are supporting this by providing funding for course fees and bursaries to eligible trainees, and also funding for employers to support trainees. Information about training routes is available on the Get into Teaching website at: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the proportion of adults with HIV that had a CD4 cell count below 350 within 91 days of diagnosis in (a) England, (b) each parliamentary constituency and (c) each local authority area in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Public Health England (PHE) has developed Fingertips, a rich source of indicators across a range of health and wellbeing themes that have been designed to support the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and commissioning to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities. The sexual and reproductive health profiles for local authorities can be found in the following link:
Data at parliamentary constituency level is not available for any measure as requested.
It is estimated that for 2014 (the most recent year for which figures are available) there are 103,700 people living with HIV (includes both diagnosed and undiagnosed infection) in the United Kingdom; a breakdown for England only is not available. Further breakdown by local authority is not available.
Table 1 below shows the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV, numbers of death in people with HIV, number people accessing HIV care and HIV testing in England and proportion of adults diagnosed with a cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) count below 350 cells, for 2014.
England | |
New HIV diagnoses (all ages) | 5,559 |
Deaths in people with HIV (all ages) | 518 |
Accessing HIV care (all ages) | 78,317 |
HIV tests performed in sexual health clinics (all ages) (2015) | 1,129,456 |
HIV self-sampling service (all ages) (November 2015 – July 2016 only) | 15,631 |
HIV tests performed in antenatal settings (all ages) | 693,570 |
Proportion of people with CD4 count below 350 cells within 91 days of diagnosis (all ages) | 40% (1,748/4415) |
Note:
I. Data is not included on additional HIV tests undertaken in England such as on blood donors, tests conducted by general practitioners that are not on pregnant women, tests undertaken by private practitioners or pharmacies, etc.
II. New HIV diagnoses are not synonymous with new HIV infections; people can and do live with an undiagnosed HIV infection for many years before they are diagnosed.
III. The proportion of people diagnosed with a CD4 count.
IV. Numbers accessing care at the local authority level are restricted to age groups 15-59 years to be consistent with British HIV Association HIV testing guidelines.
V. Data on HIV testing in sexual health clinics represent the total number of HIV tests performed and not the number of people tested for HIV. HIV testing data exclude people accessing sexual health clinics located in England who are residents in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad.
VI. The figure presented for the HIV self-sampling service represents the total number of kits returned for testing and are provisional. Data are available from November 2015, when the service began to mid July 2016. Data presented are for period November 2015 to January 2016 available from conference presentation by Guerra et al 0O38:
Local Authority data are owned by local commissioners and not published nationally.
VII. Deaths include all-cause mortality, including non-HIV related deaths.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many HIV tests were undertaken in (a) England, (b) each parliamentary constituency and (c) each local authority area in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Public Health England (PHE) has developed Fingertips, a rich source of indicators across a range of health and wellbeing themes that have been designed to support the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and commissioning to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities. The sexual and reproductive health profiles for local authorities can be found in the following link:
Data at parliamentary constituency level is not available for any measure as requested.
It is estimated that for 2014 (the most recent year for which figures are available) there are 103,700 people living with HIV (includes both diagnosed and undiagnosed infection) in the United Kingdom; a breakdown for England only is not available. Further breakdown by local authority is not available.
Table 1 below shows the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV, numbers of death in people with HIV, number people accessing HIV care and HIV testing in England and proportion of adults diagnosed with a cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) count below 350 cells, for 2014.
England | |
New HIV diagnoses (all ages) | 5,559 |
Deaths in people with HIV (all ages) | 518 |
Accessing HIV care (all ages) | 78,317 |
HIV tests performed in sexual health clinics (all ages) (2015) | 1,129,456 |
HIV self-sampling service (all ages) (November 2015 – July 2016 only) | 15,631 |
HIV tests performed in antenatal settings (all ages) | 693,570 |
Proportion of people with CD4 count below 350 cells within 91 days of diagnosis (all ages) | 40% (1,748/4415) |
Note:
I. Data is not included on additional HIV tests undertaken in England such as on blood donors, tests conducted by general practitioners that are not on pregnant women, tests undertaken by private practitioners or pharmacies, etc.
II. New HIV diagnoses are not synonymous with new HIV infections; people can and do live with an undiagnosed HIV infection for many years before they are diagnosed.
III. The proportion of people diagnosed with a CD4 count.
IV. Numbers accessing care at the local authority level are restricted to age groups 15-59 years to be consistent with British HIV Association HIV testing guidelines.
V. Data on HIV testing in sexual health clinics represent the total number of HIV tests performed and not the number of people tested for HIV. HIV testing data exclude people accessing sexual health clinics located in England who are residents in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad.
VI. The figure presented for the HIV self-sampling service represents the total number of kits returned for testing and are provisional. Data are available from November 2015, when the service began to mid July 2016. Data presented are for period November 2015 to January 2016 available from conference presentation by Guerra et al 0O38:
Local Authority data are owned by local commissioners and not published nationally.
VII. Deaths include all-cause mortality, including non-HIV related deaths.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people accessed HIV care in (a) England and (b) each parliamentary constituency in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Public Health England (PHE) has developed Fingertips, a rich source of indicators across a range of health and wellbeing themes that have been designed to support the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and commissioning to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities. The sexual and reproductive health profiles for local authorities can be found in the following link:
Data at parliamentary constituency level is not available for any measure as requested.
It is estimated that for 2014 (the most recent year for which figures are available) there are 103,700 people living with HIV (includes both diagnosed and undiagnosed infection) in the United Kingdom; a breakdown for England only is not available. Further breakdown by local authority is not available.
Table 1 below shows the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV, numbers of death in people with HIV, number people accessing HIV care and HIV testing in England and proportion of adults diagnosed with a cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) count below 350 cells, for 2014.
England | |
New HIV diagnoses (all ages) | 5,559 |
Deaths in people with HIV (all ages) | 518 |
Accessing HIV care (all ages) | 78,317 |
HIV tests performed in sexual health clinics (all ages) (2015) | 1,129,456 |
HIV self-sampling service (all ages) (November 2015 – July 2016 only) | 15,631 |
HIV tests performed in antenatal settings (all ages) | 693,570 |
Proportion of people with CD4 count below 350 cells within 91 days of diagnosis (all ages) | 40% (1,748/4415) |
Note:
I. Data is not included on additional HIV tests undertaken in England such as on blood donors, tests conducted by general practitioners that are not on pregnant women, tests undertaken by private practitioners or pharmacies, etc.
II. New HIV diagnoses are not synonymous with new HIV infections; people can and do live with an undiagnosed HIV infection for many years before they are diagnosed.
III. The proportion of people diagnosed with a CD4 count.
IV. Numbers accessing care at the local authority level are restricted to age groups 15-59 years to be consistent with British HIV Association HIV testing guidelines.
V. Data on HIV testing in sexual health clinics represent the total number of HIV tests performed and not the number of people tested for HIV. HIV testing data exclude people accessing sexual health clinics located in England who are residents in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad.
VI. The figure presented for the HIV self-sampling service represents the total number of kits returned for testing and are provisional. Data are available from November 2015, when the service began to mid July 2016. Data presented are for period November 2015 to January 2016 available from conference presentation by Guerra et al 0O38:
Local Authority data are owned by local commissioners and not published nationally.
VII. Deaths include all-cause mortality, including non-HIV related deaths.