Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 provide symptom management treatments to support people with multiple sclerosis to (a) manage their condition and (b) remain in employment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The majority of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) can be cared for through routine access to primary and secondary care. NHS England commissions the specialised elements of MS care that patients may receive from 27 neurology centres across England. Within specialised centres, neurological multidisciplinary teams ensure that patients can access a range of health professionals, including specialist nurses, psychologists, and allied health professionals such as dieticians and speech and language therapists, and that they can receive specialised treatment and support according to their needs.
There are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with MS in England, including the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology, the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit, and the Neurology Transformation Programme.
The Government recognises that long-term sickness continues to be the most common reason for economic inactivity among the working age population. As part of the Get Britain Working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
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 (a) tackle workforce shortages in respiratory care and (b) ensure (i) GPs and (ii) their teams have access to (A) training and (B) accreditation for (1) spirometry and (2) other diagnostic tests.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills, including for respiratory care, will be central to this vision.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) sets the postgraduate curriculum for general practitioners (GPs) and ensures it remains up to date. All GPs must cover the curriculum before they are able to pass the examination to become a member of the RCGP and to work independently as a GP.
NHS England provides a wide range of resources to the NHS via the eLearning for Healthcare platform, including a respiratory diseases toolkit on the prevention and management of respiratory conditions, and diagnostic tests such as spirometry.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure school children are educated about knife crime.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Keeping children safe is a top priority for this government. Education plays a key role in ensuring children can lead safe and fulfilling lives, and it provides opportunity to intervene early, to prevent young people being drawn into crime.
Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) includes content on the situations that often lead young people to carry weapons such as knives, including criminal exploitation though involvement in gangs and county lines drugs operations and in particular the grooming relationships that often accompany this. Issues around gun and knife crime can also still be taught as part of a school’s wider curriculum. For example, schools can choose to include this content as part of their personal, social, health and economic education or citizenship curriculum.
Additionally, school-led Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (‘SAFE’) taskforces have been established in 10 hotspot areas in England. The taskforces are investing in and delivering evidence-based interventions such as mentoring and social skills training to reach young people early, get them back on track with their education and reduce their vulnerability to serious violence. In alternative provision (AP), our Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces programme enables teams of specialists such as speech and language therapists, youth justice workers and family workers to provide integrated, child-centred support in 22 APs in hotspot areas.
Youth Endowment Fund’s Toolkit, backed by Home Office funding, supports schools and wider services to take evidence based interventions to tackle serious violence. More information on this toolkit is available here: http://www.youthendowmentfund.org.uk/toolkit/.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prevent reoffending by people convicted of violent offences.
Answered by Edward Argar
This Government is committed to tackling the causes of reoffending to keep our communities safe. Between 2010/11 and 2020/21, the overall proven reoffending rate has decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%.
Rehabilitation is critical to reducing reoffending. It is the process by which we assist people either to change themselves or improve their life circumstances, addressing their drivers of reoffending and therefore cutting crime. Rehabilitation takes many forms, ranging from the delivery of a cognitive behaviour programme to enabling a person to access suitable accommodation and the means to earn a living.
HMPPS offers 5 Accredited Programmes specifically designed for those individuals convicted of general, domestic, intimate partner violent offending: Kaizen, Becoming New Me Plus (BNM+), Building Better Relationships (BBR), New Me Strengths (NMS), and Living as New Me (LNM). The Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) is a responsive and flexible Accredited Programme that may be suitable for those offenders who do not meet the eligibility criteria for more specific programmes, as well as the New Me MOT toolkit, offering continuity of support to those who have completed the Kaizen, BNM+, or NMS programmes.
In addition to our targeted work to prevent violent crime reoffending, we are also working hard to ensure that prison leavers across the estate have the right building blocks in place to ensure they are successful on release. For example, we are helping prison leavers to secure accommodation, employment, and substance misuse treatment, all of which are essential for rehabilitation and can significantly reduce the likelihood of reoffending. We are also delivering Commissioned Rehabilitative Services which provide offenders with tailored, community-based services to support rehabilitation and drive down reoffending. On top of this, we are expanding the use of electronic monitoring for both community-based sentences and post-custody licence to help reduce the risk of reoffending and support robust offender management.
Finally, public protection work is central to the work of the Probation Service. We have also increased our baseline funding by £155 million per annum which is helping us to increase staffing and take other action to improve delivery across HMPPS so that the service can best achieve its purpose of protecting the public and reducing reoffending.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which external (a) speakers and (b) organisations have spoken in Civil Service diversity, equity, and inclusion training since 2020.
Answered by John Glen
In the Autumn Statement last year, the Chancellor set out that the Government is considering introducing a presumption against external EDI spending and increasing ministerial scrutiny of EDI spending whilst streamlining EDI training and HR processes with a view to getting value for the taxpayer.
The Civil Service offers limited diversity and inclusion specific training through the cross Civil Service learning offer. The Civil Service work with a range of external suppliers to design and deliver these courses, a full list of which is provided here. Speakers are not part of the training provided in the learning offer.
Civil Service Expectations - e-learning course
Collaborating effectively in cross-cultural teams - MindGym
Creating an Inclusive Culture - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Creating Inclusive Virtual Teams - Bailey & French
Creating Team Inclusivity - Capital Training Ltd
Cultivating your Cultural Intelligence - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Dealing with Everyday Racism - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Disability inclusive management - KPMG Specialist Faculty
Ignite inclusion - MindGym
Inclusive leadership - KPMG Specialist Faculty
Leading inclusive teams - KPMG Specialist Faculty
Managing Inclusion - Korn Ferry
Modern Leadership – skills for managing a diverse workforce - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Neurodiversity in the workplace - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Power of choice - Korn Ferry
Respect Training - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Sexual Harassment - Red Snapper
Understanding multiple perspectives - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Working with different cultures – a Managers Toolkit - Berkshire Consultancy Ltd
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure a knowledge of (a) mental health and (b) neurodiversity among (i) school teachers and (ii) school students.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The department is committed to ensuring that all pupils can reach their potential and receive excellent support from their teachers. The Teachers’ Standards sets clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Consideration of SEND underpins both the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF) which were both produced with the support of sector experts. ITT courses and ECF-based programmes must be designed so that new teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils.
The department reviewed the CCF alongside the ECF during 2023, in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation and groups of sector experts, including SEND specialists. This included a public call for evidence. Following this review, the updated and combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) was published on 30 January 2024, for delivery from September 2025.
The department’s review of content for the ITTECF paid particular attention to the needs of trainees and early career teachers (ECTs) when supporting pupils with SEND. There is now significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND. The department has also made edits to existing statements to improve inclusivity for SEND throughout the framework, including new content for trainees and ECTs on who to contact to provide support with any pupil mental health concerns.
The department is also offering all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, enabling them to introduce effective whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. Over 14,400 settings have claimed a grant so far, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools, and the department has also recently made available second grants for settings who have lost their trained lead. The department’s quality assured training course provides the practical knowledge and skills to implement a whole school or college approach to promoting mental wellbeing. The course also helps senior mental health leads to facilitate the development of school staff, to ensure that all staff can recognise and understand the process to respond to mental health concerns.
The department has also recently launched two new resources to help trained mental health leads and wider school and college staff to promote and support pupil mental health, both of which are hosted on the Mentally Healthy Schools site. The resource hub signposts practical resources and tools to embed whole-school or college approaches and the targeted mental wellbeing toolkit gives practical advice and tools to help schools and colleges identify the most effective targeted support options for their setting. They are both available here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
The department wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe. The department wants to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society. That is why the department has made Relationships Education compulsory for all primary school pupils, Relationships and Sex Education compulsory for all secondary school pupils from September 2020, and Health Education compulsory for pupils in all state-funded schools. In Health Education, there is a strong focus on mental wellbeing, including a recognition that mental wellbeing and physical health are linked. It is important that pupils understand that good physical health, for both men and women, contributes to good mental wellbeing. The purpose of teaching pupils about mental health is to give them the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.
Asked by: Lord Woodley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence (1) took their own life, or (2) died from other causes, in 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Every death in custody is a tragedy and we continue to do all we can to improve the safety of prisoners
We have implemented a revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) case management approach across the prison estate which is used to support people at risk of suicide or self-harm in prison. Revisions in ACCT v6 include: a stronger emphasis on taking a person-centred approach; better multi-disciplinary team working; a consistent quality assurance process and an improved focus on identifying and addressing an individual’s risks, triggers and protective factors.
To support the implementation of ACCT v6 we are developing and introducing a new safety training package for staff (called Safety Support Skills training). It brings together related safety topics, including suicide and self-harm prevention, understanding risks, triggers and protective factors, and encourages a joined-up approach to prison safety.
We have also worked with Samaritans to develop a postvention response to providing support in the period following a self-inflicted death in order to reduce the risk of further deaths. This has been implemented across the adult male estate, and the roll out of an adapted version of the approach in the women’s estate will shortly be completed. Our grant to Samaritans includes funding for this service to be maintained until March 2025.
In 2023, 17 prisoners serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence died in custody, 9 of these were classified as self-inflicted deaths.
(1) Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.
(2) An indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was introduced in 2005. It was intended for high risk prisoners considered ‘dangerous’ but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. The number of prisoners held on this sentence increased initially and the increase was offset by reductions elsewhere
(3) Figures include incidents at HMPPS run Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts. Figures do not include incidents at Medway STC
(4) The self-inflicted deaths category includes a wider range of deaths than suicides. When comparing figures with other sources it is important to determine whether the narrower suicide or broader self-inflicted deaths approach is in use.
Data Sources and Quality
These figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time.
Please note that all deaths in prison custody are subject to a coroner’s inquest. It is the responsibility of the coroner to determine the cause of death. The HMPPS system for classifying deaths provides a provisional classification for administrative and statistical purposes. The final classification is only determined at inquest. Figures dependent on classification of deaths should therefore be treated as provisional.
It remains a priority for this Government that all those serving the IPP sentence receive the support they need to progress towards safe release from custody or, where they are being supervised on licence in the community, towards having their licence terminated altogether. In that respect, the Lord Chancellor, announced on 28 November 2023, this Government is taking changes forward in the Victims and Prisoners Bill to reform legislation relating to the termination of the licence for IPP offenders by making amendments to section 31A of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997.
The new measure, subject to the views of Parliament, will:
a. reduce the qualifying period which triggers the duty of the Secretary of State to refer an IPP licence to the Parole Board for termination from ten years to three years;
b. include a clear statutory presumption that the IPP licence will be terminated by the Parole Board at the end of the three-year qualifying period;
c. introduce a provision that will automatically terminate the IPP licence two years after the three-year qualifying period, in cases where the Parole Board has not terminated the licence, so long as the offender is not recalled in that period; and
d. introduce a power to amend the qualifying period by Statutory Instrument;
The Government was particularly persuaded by the Justice Select Committee’s (JSC) recommendation to reduce the qualifying licence period from 10 years to five years – a recommendation in their IPP inquiry report published on 28 September 2022. We are going further: reducing the period to three years. These amendments will restore greater proportionality to IPP sentences by reducing the qualifying period to three years and providing a clear pathway to a definitive end to the licence and, therefore, the sentence.
The safety workstream will actively support Prisons to deliver improvements to safety of those serving an IPP sentence. We plan to;
• Continue to raise staff awareness of the heightened risk of self-harm, suicide and violence of IPP prisoners.
• Monitor, analyse and share any changing or emerging trends in published IPP prisoner data to inform and update guidance where appropriate
• Share internal and external learning, initiatives and communications to inform and enable prisons to support IPP prisoners at risk of self-harm, suicide and violence.
• Develop and pilot a IPP safety toolkit, based on positive practice, to support prisons to improve their approach to IPP prisoners and encourage local innovation.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) support his Department provides to and (b) safeguarding measures are in place within the welfare system for people assessed to be at serious risk of suicide or self-harm; and whether he plans to take steps to strengthen that support.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Department recognises the importance of supporting vulnerable customers. All staff working with customers undertake comprehensive training to equip them with the skills to be able to support those who express an intention of suicide or self-harm.
The Department has an established Six Point Plan for staff to follow when they identify a customer who may be at risk of harming themselves. This toolkit ensures that appropriate support is provided and this may involve notifying emergency services in the event where the customer is at immediate risk.
The Six Point Plan is under continuous review to ensure it aligns with current thinking on mental health. We also have Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders whose role is to reach across local communities to underpin our relationships with other organisations that provide support to our customers.
The Work and Pensions Select Committee announced an inquiry into ‘Safeguarding vulnerable claimants’ on 21 July 2023 and will examine this with emphasis on whether the Department’s approach to safeguarding needs to change.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to encourage women and girls' involvement in artificial intelligence.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Shadow Minister (Education)
Government is committed to helping diversify the whole ecosystem and empower diverse, brilliant people right across the UK.
That’s why the government invested £30 million into the AI and Data Science Conversion Course program, which was established to broaden the supply of talent in the UK AI labour market. We are already seeing the positive impact the programme is having: it is increasing the diversity of the student cohort and successfully converting non-STEM students to enter the AI labour market. So far, 73% of scholarships were awarded to women.
Digital skills are fundamental to ensuring everyone can make the most of a digital future. As the department that leads on digital skills, we are focusing on broadening and deepening the pool of talent. The Digital Skills Council convenes stakeholders from across the sector to deliver industry led action on driving the growth of the digital workforce, including widening the skills pipelines, and ensuring tech roles are accessible for all. One of the council’s objectives is to promote mechanisms to provide increasingly diverse access to digital roles and digitally enabled roles.
Additionally, since 2017, we have supported the Tech Talent Charter (TTC), a not-for-profit organisation providing research, insights and a practical toolkit to promote diversity in the tech companies. They bring together over 700 signatory organisations, across 42 industry sectors, representing 160,000 people, equipping them with the networks and resources to drive their diversity efforts.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve NHS care for people with migraines; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing the availability of headache specialists in the NHS, (b) improving the provision of (i) training and resources for GPs and (ii) guidance for other health professionals on migraines and (c) increasing the role of pharmacies for providing primary care for people with migraines.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
To ensure that there are sufficient staffing levels right across the National Health Service, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) in June 2023. The LTWP sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term. The LTWP is a high-level plan to support the NHS workforce as a whole and is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
General practitioners are responsible for ensuring that their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date, and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills relevant to their role as generalist community-based doctors. This includes understanding how to recognise migraine and headache disorders and instigate appropriate treatment.
Individual employers are responsible for investing in post-registration training, ensuring that staff are trained and competent to carry out their role and are adequately supported throughout their training. All training undertaken by post-registration qualified staff should be in line with national and local guidelines covering the training being undertaken.
In England, all community pharmacies delivering NHS services must provide support for self-care, for example giving people advice and support, and where appropriate, the sale of appropriate over the counter (OTC) medicines. Advice and OTC migraine treatments are part of a well-established pathway in this context, and pharmacy teams are able to advise patients of their options.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population. The RightCare Headache and Migraines Toolkit should be used by ICBs to ensure that people suffering from migraines are supported effectively. The toolkit sets out the key priorities for improvement, including correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders, and long-term management of patients in primary or community care. The toolkit also provides an opportunity for commissioners to self-assess and benchmark current systems’ service delivery and to explore opportunities for improvement.
The toolkit is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/rightcare/products/pathways/headache-and-migraine-toolkit/