Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish data on NHS orthodontic waiting lists.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on National Health Service orthodontic waiting lists is unavailable.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 tests were carried out in Batley and Spen constituency on each of the last 14 days.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held in the format requested as data is not collected at constituency level.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
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 introducing a fast track covid-19 testing system for school (a) teachers and (b) staff.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to supporting schools to stay open and as part of this, teachers with symptoms are being prioritised for tests. It is important that teachers who experience potential coronavirus symptoms quickly get clarity on whether they have the virus so those without it can safely return to their classes.
The Government have developed a dedicated route to enable schools to order additional tests kits online via a replenishment portal which can be accessed here. This dedicated route is used to replenish test kits and signpost staff to the online booking portal should any additional need for testing arise.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 testing swabs were provided to testing centres in Batley and Spen constituency on each of the last 14 days.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not publish this data in this format.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to NHS Trusts on (a) supporting front line NHS staff who have been shielding back to work and (b) providing those staff with appropriate personal protective equipment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Employers have produced guidance for National Health Service organisations to support staff returning to work after shielding. An individual risk assessment must take place to support those staff and the relevant adjustments made. The guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mental health support is available to freelancers in the digital, culture, media and sport sectors who have not received an income for over four months as a result of the covid-19 outbreak and who are not eligible for Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We are committed to supporting everyone’s mental wellbeing, during this unprecedented period. National Health Service mental health services have remained open for business throughout this time providing ongoing support, including for people who work freelance if they have a clinical need. For those with severe needs or in crisis, all NHS mental health providers have established 24 hours a day, seven days a week mental health crisis lines. We have also published official guidance on mental health and wellbeing on GOV.UK and the Every Mind Matters campaign and website contains tailored, practical steps that the public can take to support their wellbeing and manage their mental health during the pandemic.
The Government has provided additional funding of £9.2 million for mental health charities to support adults and children struggling with their mental wellbeing during this time.
We are also working with the NHS, Public Health England and other key partners to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts and plan for how to support mental health and wellbeing throughout the coming weeks and months.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for keeping additional covid-19 restrictions on (a) Batley and (b) other parts of Kirklees Council while removing restrictions from other areas in that local authority area.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Local areas have been encouraged to take a new, collaborative approach to advise on the geographical boundaries of local restrictions. Local leaders make proposals to the Gold Local Action committee based on the latest data available. This means restrictions in some areas will only apply to certain wards, rather than the entire local authority area. Following a review of the epidemiological and contextual evidence, and in consideration of the suggestions made by local leaders, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care alongside the Chief Medical Officer and members of the Gold Local Action Committee agreed that rules must remain in place for some areas to protect local residents, and allow more time for the changes to have an effect, cutting transmission among households and businesses.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with (a) NHS England and (b) Public Health England on implementation of the recommendations of the independent review of the breast screening programme, published on 13 December.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department, along with Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England, is reviewing the recommendations of the recent Independent review of Breast Screening and will be publishing a full response on behalf of the Government shortly.
The Government will ensure that steps are taken to implement a system that ensures a uniform national approach to the interpretation and implementation of breast screening policy, once that policy has been agreed. The Department, PHE and NHS England will continue to work together to ensure the safe delivery of the breast screening programme through agreed responsibilities and governance mechanisms.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he his taking to increase the number of mental health specialists working in early years settings.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
It is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to decide on how local mental health provision should be made, based on local need and circumstances. CCGs are required to work with other local services to produce local transformation plans (LTPs), now included in sustainability and transformation plans, which set out how children and young people’s mental health services will be delivered locally, including in early years.
We are making available an additional £1.4 billion to support them in this. NHS England’s report, ‘Children and young people’s mental health Local Transformation Plans – a summary of key themes’, estimated that almost 90% of LTPs referenced having early years programmes in place. The report is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/08/cyp-mh-ltp.pdf
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
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 effect of socioeconomic inequalities on children's health outcomes throughout their lifetimes.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Inequalities experienced in childhood can lead to continuing problems across the life course. We want children to have the best start in life. Health visitors, as leaders of the Healthy Child Programme for 0-5 year olds, provide evidence-based public health interventions at community, family and individual levels.
Local commissioners are critical in providing quality services that address public health priorities associated with deprivation. These include services to tackle smoking in pregnancy, reduce childhood obesity, improve oral health and enhance early language skills.
Public Health England is working closely with the Department for Education to help parents improve their children’s early language and literacy skills before they start school. This aims to close the `word gap’ between disadvantaged children and their peers. An £8.5 million programme has opened for local authorities to fund projects aimed at disadvantaged children.
We are making an additional £1.4 billion available to transform children and young people’s mental health services from 2015/16 to 2019/20. This will mean that by 2020/21, 70,000 additional children and young people each year will be accessing National Health Service specialist mental health services. We are clear that there is still more to be done, hence why we have recently published a joint health and education Green Paper, one of the key proposals for which is to create new mental health support teams to deliver interventions for mild to moderate mental health needs for children and young people, in or close to schools and colleges.