Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to build on the proposals in the report of Sir Andrew Dilnot’s Commission on Funding of Care and Support, Fairer Care Funding, published in July 2011.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As announced in the Autumn Statement 2022, we listened to the concerns of local government and made the decision to delay the rollout of charging reforms from October 2023 to October 2025. These reforms include the introduction of a cap on personal care costs, and a more generous adult social care means test. The Government has been considering what form the rollout of charging reform from October 2025 will take.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will hold discussions with (a) Healthwatch England and (b) other relevant stakeholders on the potential impact of the change to the requirement for practices to update the NHS website on whether they are accepting NHS patients to include the phrase when availability allows on the accuracy of reporting of NHS dental access; and what proportion of dental practices are updating their websites in line with that requirement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service dentists are required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days, to ensure patients have access to up-to-date information on where they can access care. Integrated care boards (ICBs) can review which practices in their areas have not updated their profiles in a 90-day period, and work with practices to ensure they comply.
Appointment availability can fluctuate daily, for example with patients cancelling and rescheduling appointments. We have updated the wording on the NHS website profiles to when availability allows, to portray a status which is more reflective of the way that most contractors are already working. This wording was added to the NHS.UK website on 2 April 2024.
Since March 2024 the number of practices reporting that they are taking on new patients via their NHS website profile has increased. Nearly 500 more dental practices on the NHS Find a Dentist website were showing themselves as open to new adult patients as of 8 April 2024, compared to the end of January 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to bring forward a workforce strategy for social care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We set out our national strategy for the social care workforce in our People at The Heart of Care white paper in December 2021, and in 2023 we published the associated implementation plan, Next Steps to Putting People at the Heart of Care. We recently announced a series of measures as part of that implementation. This includes the launch of the Care Workforce Pathway, a new national career structure for the adult social care workforce, an investment of over £20 million for apprenticeships, to support the training and supervising of hundreds of new social work and nurse apprentices, and a new digital leadership qualification, to help equip social care leaders and managers with the confidence and capability to drive the use of technology in the delivery of care. We plan to announce further phases of our reforms, particularly related to our reimbursement platform and funding for learning and development, in the summer.
Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) consideration they have given, and (2) discussions they have had with key stakeholders, on setting sufficiency benchmarks for youth service provision.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. This is funded from the local government settlement, which has been increased to £64 billion next year, with a further £500 million from central government dedicated to supporting children and adult social care in recognition of the pressures local authorities are facing.
In September 2023, DCMS published updated statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing duty and how to deliver it. Alongside this, DCMS funds a peer review programme for local authorities to learn from each other about the best approaches to youth service provision. We received positive feedback from the areas that have already taken part, and are supporting more areas this year.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing a social worker workforce strategy that prioritises (a) recruitment, (b) retention and (c) professional pathways.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In December 2021, the Government set out its strategy for the social care workforce in The People at the Heart of Care white paper. This set out our commitment to the continued success of the social work profession, and included plans to develop the domestic care workforce, including the launch of the care workforce pathway and an investment of over £20 million for adult social care nurse and social work apprenticeships.
On 10 January 2024, the Government announced a new fund to support the recruitment of social work apprentices into adult social care, over the next three years. Nearly £8 million from this fund has already been released to local authorities, and in the summer there will be another opportunity to apply to this fund.
Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support local authorities to fulfil their statutory duty to secure a ‘local youth offer’.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. This is funded from the local government settlement which has been increased to £64 billion next year, with a further £500 million dedicated to supporting children and adult social care in recognition of the pressures local authorities are facing.
In September 2023, DCMS published updated statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing duty and how to deliver it. Alongside this, DCMS funds a peer review programme for local authorities to learn from each other about the best approaches to youth service provision. We received positive feedback from the areas that have already taken part and are supporting more areas this year.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the number of (a) people that are on a waiting list and (b) assessments provided each month at the Leeds adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder service.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available the appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The NICE guidelines for ADHD diagnosis and management aim to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and the quality of care and support people receive. The NICE guidelines do not recommend a maximum waiting time standard for ADHD diagnosis, either from referral for an assessment to receiving an assessment, a diagnosis, or a first contact appointment.
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for assessment for ADHD. A specific assessment of the implications for departmental policies of the number of people on a waiting list, or the number of assessments provided each month for adult ADHD services in Leeds, is not currently planned.
The Department is exploring options to improve data collection and reporting on ADHD assessment waiting times nationally, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way, and in line with the NICE guideline. In support of this, the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Programme has commissioned a research project to provide insights into local ADHD diagnosis waiting times data collection.
In December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the National Health Service. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the Government, to improve care for people living with the condition. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand for assessments and support.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services, to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder assessments in Leeds North West constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available the appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The NICE guidelines for ADHD diagnosis and management aim to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and the quality of care and support people receive. The NICE guidelines do not recommend a maximum waiting time standard for ADHD diagnosis, either from referral for an assessment to receiving an assessment, a diagnosis, or a first contact appointment.
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for assessment for ADHD. A specific assessment of the implications for departmental policies of the number of people on a waiting list, or the number of assessments provided each month for adult ADHD services in Leeds, is not currently planned.
The Department is exploring options to improve data collection and reporting on ADHD assessment waiting times nationally, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way, and in line with the NICE guideline. In support of this, the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Programme has commissioned a research project to provide insights into local ADHD diagnosis waiting times data collection.
In December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the National Health Service. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the Government, to improve care for people living with the condition. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand for assessments and support.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services, to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many adult mental health patients have been held in inappropriate out of area placements since March 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
12,960 inappropriate out of area placements were started between April 2021 and 31 December 2023, although some patients may have had more than one placement within the reporting period.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of health and adult social care staff that will undertake the second part of tier (a) one and (b) two of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism in the next three years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have provided estimates of the number of health and adult social care staff that would undertake Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in our consultation stage impact assessment. This assessment was published as part of the public consultation on the Oliver McGowan Code of Practice. The impact assessment and wider public consultation are available, respectively, at the following two links:
For healthcare, we estimated that over the first three years of training roll-out, 1,036,000 staff would be trained at Tier 1 level, and 1,186,000 staff would be trained at Tier 2 level. For adult social care, over the same period, we estimated that 840,000 staff would be trained at Tier 1 level, and 492,000 staff would be trained at Tier 2 level. In addition, over 1.7 million people have already completed the first part of Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism, an e-learning package.
The final stage impact assessment incorporates additional evidence on the number of staff expected to undertake training, which was provided by organisations through the public consultation. The final assessment will be published in due course.