Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 support the integration of dementia patients into community activities in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst the Department does not promote specific clubs or societies for people living with dementia and their carers, we recognise that clubs and societies can be important in supporting people to engage with their community and reducing social isolation.
Local authorities are also required to provide or arrange services that meet the social care needs of the local population, including unpaid carers, under the Care Act 2014. It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to work with the third sector in their geographical area to offer services that meet the needs of their population.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Quality Standard on Dementia, published in June 2019, includes guidelines for offering activities, such as exercise, aromatherapy, art, gardening, baking, reminiscence therapy, music therapy, mindfulness and animal assisted therapy, to help promote wellbeing.
There are a number of local initiatives provided via third sector charitable organisations that focus on support for those within their community living with dementia, allowing them to engage more closely with the communities they live in. For example, within Solihull there is a Dementia Café facility and the opportunity to attend a Singing for the Brain event.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's timescales are for the creation of the nine statutory joint radiotherapy committees; what steps his Department is taking to create those committees; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England published a roadmap in May 2022 setting the direction of travel for greater integration of specialised services with integrated care board (ICB) commissioned services, in order to better join up patient pathways. A copy of the roadmap is available at the following link:
An analysis of the entire specialised services portfolio was undertaken to determine which services are both suitable and ready for greater ICB leadership. Following an assessment of ICB system readiness at the end of 2022, which was signed off by the NHS England Board in February 2023, nine statutory joint committees between NHS England and multi-ICB collaborations were established on 1 April 2023 taking on joint responsibility for commissioning decisions on 59 specialised services. A list of these services (which includes radiotherapy services) is available at the following link:
To ensure appropriate oversight and assurance of specialised services under the nine statutory joint committees in 2023/24, NHS England produced guidance for its regional teams and integrated care boards which was released in February 2023. The guidance sets out four key areas that NHS England's regional specialised commissioning teams, working with and through the joint committees, should be regularly overseeing and monitoring in relation to their specialised provision (including providers of radiotherapy services). These four areas are: timeliness of provision; quality of provision; use of resources/value for money; and equity and health inequalities.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to create the nine statutory joint committees on radiotherapy; and what the process will be for creating those committees.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England published a roadmap in May 2022 setting the direction of travel for greater integration of specialised services with integrated care board (ICB) commissioned services, in order to better join up patient pathways. A copy of the roadmap is available at the following link:
An analysis of the entire specialised services portfolio was undertaken to determine which services are both suitable and ready for greater ICB leadership. Following an assessment of ICB system readiness at the end of 2022, which was signed off by the NHS England Board in February 2023, nine statutory joint committees between NHS England and multi-ICB collaborations were established on 1 April 2023 taking on joint responsibility for commissioning decisions on 59 specialised services. A list of these services (which includes radiotherapy services) is available at the following link:
To ensure appropriate oversight and assurance of specialised services under the nine statutory joint committees in 2023/24, NHS England produced guidance for its regional teams and integrated care boards which was released in February 2023. The guidance sets out four key areas that NHS England's regional specialised commissioning teams, working with and through the joint committees, should be regularly overseeing and monitoring in relation to their specialised provision (including providers of radiotherapy services). These four areas are: timeliness of provision; quality of provision; use of resources/value for money; and equity and health inequalities.
Asked by: Paul Bristow (Conservative - Peterborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available specifically for people with cancer who experience long waits for treatment.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is working with NHS England to reduce waiting times for cancer treatments and to ensure support is available for those that are wating for treatment. The Government and the National Health Service are committed to ensuring that all cancer patients get access to a Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care Interventions. These will ensure care focuses on what matters most to each person, whilst empowering them to self-manage where appropriate and providing a route back into the system if they notice any worrying changes or need to seek help.
NHS England is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support the delivery of priorities in cancer, including working to ensure that every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards.
The NHS is supporting adults with the NHS Talking Therapies which provides evidence-based mental health services for people with anxiety and depression. The pathway has been identified as a priority to support the integration of mental and physical health services for people with long-term conditions such as cancer.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
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 impact of joint working between (a) health services, (b) social care services and (c) local councils on the prevention of fractures caused by osteoporosis.
Answered by Will Quince
The integration white paper, ‘Joining up care for people, places and populations’, published on 9 February 2022, set out opportunities to progress further to join up health and social care services at a local level for citizens in England.
To support this joint working, the Government will invest £1.6 billion over the next two years through the Better Care Fund to improve hospital discharge and outcomes for people with long term conditions, including osteoporosis.
The Government has also set out national requirements for local authorities and integrated care boards to jointly spend nearly £17 billion over the next two years to invest in preventative services and tackle delayed discharges.
The Major Conditions Strategy is an opportunity to tackle musculoskeletal conditions, including osteoporosis, to improve outcomes for patients. The strategy will set out a clear vision for musculoskeletal conditions, covering treatment and prevention.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the commissioning of integrated services for eating disorders for (1) children and young people, and (2) adults.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including to increase the focus on early identification and intervention. Updated guidance will highlight the importance of improved integration between dedicated community eating disorder services, wider children and young people's mental health services, schools, colleges and primary care to improve awareness, provide expert advice and improve support for children and young people presenting with problems with eating, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.
Improving adult eating disorder (AED) services is a key priority for NHS England and a fundamental part of our LTP commitment to expand and improve mental health services.
The NHS Long Term Plan sets out an ambition to give 370,000 adults and older adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities by 2023/24. This includes creating integrated pathways of care across primary care, mental health services, VCS organisations, and social care, for people with severe mental illness. This programme will deliver just under £1 billion of additional funding per year for transforming community mental health by 2023/24.
Since April 2021 all integrated care systems (ICSs) have received fair-share funding to transform their community mental health services, including eating disorders, with the expectation that all ICS will have transformed AED services in place by 2023/24.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
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 mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of technology on secondary healthcare at Royal Bolton Hospital.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department marked the 75th Anniversary of the National Health Service over the course of June and July, working closely with NHS England. The Department and NHS England made a number of flagship announcements, including the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan; a new national targeted lung cancer screening programme; the Government’s Mandate to NHS England; an additional one million health checks to tackle cardiovascular disease through the new NHS Digital Health Checks; and a £21 million fund for NHS trusts to bid and procure artificial intelligence diagnostic imaging tools.
In December 2022, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust published their Digital Strategy for 2022-2025, which sets out their ambition to become a 'Digital Trust' via four objectives, digital integration, digital care, digital workforce and digital infrastructure. The Strategy sets out the proposed changes to the local health and social care system and benefits to patients, the workforce and system. In 2022/23, the Department provided Royal Bolton £1.29 million to “digitise the frontline” by improving access to electronic patient record data across the NHS. £18 million has also been provided for the development of a Community Diagnostic Centre to support the creation of a digitally enabled estate.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in relation to the social value elements of large procurement contracts by government departments or bodies wholly-owned by His Majesty's Government, to what extent they assess tenders by evaluating (1) the absolute number of social value programmes the successful bidder will undertake, and (2) the impact and effectiveness of the social value programme; and what assessment they have made of the relative impact of each form of evaluation.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Social Value Act 2012 was designed to improve procurement practice and diversify suppliers to the government. Implementation is the responsibility of individual public service commissioners. The Social Value Model is the latest government intervention that is enabling the government to evaluate social value policy in the central government.
The Social Value Model launched in January 2021 (PPN 06/20), standardises the assessment of bidder’s proposals for delivering social value outcomes based on government’s priorities. The Model takes into account factors such as the number of local jobs or apprenticeships a contractor will provide, the number of SMEs involved in their wider supply chain and improving community integration.
Implementation of the Model across central government is underpinned by a detailed training programme, and central government departments are now required to report supplier social value commitments against Key Performance Indicators.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Civil Service processes to measure social value are having a positive impact on the lives of poor communities; and how they ensure that previous processes which were unsuccessful are not repeated.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Social Value Act 2012 was designed to improve procurement practice and diversify suppliers to the government. Implementation is the responsibility of individual public service commissioners. The Social Value Model is the latest government intervention that is enabling the government to evaluate social value policy in the central government.
The Social Value Model launched in January 2021 (PPN 06/20), standardises the assessment of bidder’s proposals for delivering social value outcomes based on government’s priorities. The Model takes into account factors such as the number of local jobs or apprenticeships a contractor will provide, the number of SMEs involved in their wider supply chain and improving community integration.
Implementation of the Model across central government is underpinned by a detailed training programme, and central government departments are now required to report supplier social value commitments against Key Performance Indicators.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to measure the success of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Social Value Act 2012 was designed to improve procurement practice and diversify suppliers to the government. Implementation is the responsibility of individual public service commissioners. The Social Value Model is the latest government intervention that is enabling the government to evaluate social value policy in the central government.
The Social Value Model launched in January 2021 (PPN 06/20), standardises the assessment of bidder’s proposals for delivering social value outcomes based on government’s priorities. The Model takes into account factors such as the number of local jobs or apprenticeships a contractor will provide, the number of SMEs involved in their wider supply chain and improving community integration.
Implementation of the Model across central government is underpinned by a detailed training programme, and central government departments are now required to report supplier social value commitments against Key Performance Indicators.