Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure (a) equality of access to and (b) quality of healthcare provision across the (i) women’s and (ii) Children and Young People's estate.

To improve health and social care outcomes for all women in prison and upon their release, NHS England and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service commissioned the National Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review. The review’s report identified a number of recommendations to improve equity and quality of care to meet the specific needs of women in prison.

A wide range of actions to implement these recommendations are taking place at establishment, regional, and national levels, backed by £21 million across three years, and overseen by the Joint Women's Prison Health and Social Care Review Implementation Programme Board.

The health issues facing those detained in the children and young people secure estate are systematically kept under review through regular health and wellbeing needs assessments and the Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings.

The Framework for Integrated Care operates in the children and young people secure estate as a coherent structure for a comprehensive, trauma-informed system of care that focuses on individualised care rather than on separate labels, diagnoses, or interventions.

NHS England has also commissioned the three-year Benchmarking Project, aimed at assessing and supporting the implementation of the Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings.

Further work is underway to identify where the existing pathway in the children and young people secure estate requires enhancement to better support the placement, management, and care of all girls in secure settings. This work will be informed by evidence and best practice and will be developed with experts to test the most appropriate model of care.