Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Headsmart Campaign in raising awareness of child brain tumours; and what steps he is taking to ensure that, after diagnosis of such tumours, (a) children and (b) adults receive the support they need for emotional and mental wellbeing.

We are aware of the HeadSmart Be brain tumour aware campaign which was launched in 2011, and fully support the campaign’s aims to raise awareness of brain tumours and promote earlier diagnosis in children and young people. In early 2014, I met with representatives of HeadSmart. I subsequently wrote to local health and wellbeing boards, and Public Health England (PHE) contacted all directors of public health in April 2014, encouraging them to support the campaign and drawing their attention to the campaign’s awareness-raising materials. PHE and Department of Health officials met with The Brain Tumour Charity on 23 January 2015, which resulted in the HeadSmart team giving a well-received presentation to the School Nursing Partnership Implementation Group on 17 March 2015. In addition, a meeting is being set up with officials from NHS England to discuss the evaluation and impact of the HeadSmart campaign. We will continue to work with stakeholders to see what more can be done to increase awareness of brain tumours.

The National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI) has set out to understand the numbers, needs, and experiences of people living with and beyond cancer, including emotional and psychological needs, and the most effective service solutions to meet the growing numbers of survivors. The NCSI has recommended four priority areas: recovery packages, consequences of treatment and Patient Report Outcome Measures (PROMs), stratified pathways of care and physical activity. To support this work NHS England, in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, has established the Living with and Beyond Cancer Programme, a two-year programme of work to embed the four priority areas from NCSI into mainstream commissioning.

NHS England has also established the Teenage and Young Adults Clinical Reference Group (CRG) so that the clinical needs of teenagers and young people with cancer are taken into account as part of cancer commissioning. The CRG is working to ensure that teenagers and young people with cancer have access to dedicated pathways, and that the gaps in the associated services, such as mental health, palliative care and transition, are closed.