Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 ensure (a) transparency and (b) parental consent in clinical trials involving children.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are legal measures in place to ensure informed consent in clinical trials, through the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004. Parental consent for clinical trials investigating medicines which involve children is also legislated for via the same Regulations.
Promoting and ensuring transparency is central to the role of the Health Research Authority to facilitate safe and ethical research as defined in the Care Act 2014. This includes clinical trials involving children.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures are in place to ensure informed consent in clinical trials.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are legal measures in place to ensure informed consent in clinical trials, through the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004. Parental consent for clinical trials investigating medicines which involve children is also legislated for via the same Regulations.
Promoting and ensuring transparency is central to the role of the Health Research Authority to facilitate safe and ethical research as defined in the Care Act 2014. This includes clinical trials involving children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure the availability of childcare placements in school holidays.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the government’s Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. This included £289 million to support the expansion of wraparound childcare for primary school-aged children. By 2026, all parents and carers of primary school-aged children, who need it, will be able to access term time wraparound childcare in their local area from 8am to 6pm.
Since 2021, the department has provided more than £200 million of funding per year to local authorities across England, who take responsibility for the provision of the Holidays Activities and Food programme (HAF) in their area.
The HAF programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their heath, wellbeing and learning.
School holidays can be particular pressure points for some families because of increased costs, such as food and childcare, and reduced incomes. For some children that can lead to a holiday experience gap, with children from disadvantaged families less likely to access organised out-of-school activities, more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health and are more likely to experience social isolation.
Free holiday clubs are a response to this issue and evidence suggests that they can have a positive impact on children and young people. It also shows they work best when they provide consistent and easily accessible enrichment activities, when they offer more than just breakfast or lunch, and when they involve children and parents in food preparation.
Local authorities are responsible for understanding the needs of the children and families in their area and ensuring that the programme reaches those who need it.
While the majority of funding that local authorities receive should be used for holiday club places for children in receipt of free school meals (FSM), local authorities have discretion to use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for children who are not in receipt of benefits-related FSM but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF provision.
In deciding which children should benefit from the 15% flexible funding, local authorities are asked to ensure that these places are aligned to their local priorities.
A number of local authorities across England have secured additional funding or resources that has allowed them to expand the reach of their programme.
The HAF programme is delivered during longer school holidays, Easter, summer and the Christmas break, in all 153 local authorities in England.
Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 11.3 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. Across 2023, a total of 5.3 million HAF days were provided during Easter, summer and winter delivery.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking legislative steps to stop private clinics prescribing puberty-blockers to children.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Following the publication of Dr Cass’ Final Report, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has made a commitment to look closely at what can be done to curtail any loopholes in prescribing practices for children with gender dysphoria, including legislative options.
The Care Quality Commission will expect registered providers to take into account the recommendations of the Cass Review. If a private organisation registered with the Care Quality Commission fails to meet the conditions of its registration, then the regulator can take enforcement action.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 increase access to NHS assessments for Autism Spectrum Conditions for children.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for St Ives on 22 March 2024, to Question 18917.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Early Intervention Hubs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In July 2023, the Department secured just under £5 million from HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund, for a project to boost and evaluate the impact of 10 early support hubs. The Department has since provided an additional £3 million to increase the number of hubs being funded across the country to 24.
Crucially, alongside boosting 24 hubs, the funding is also being used to evaluate the impact of the services, and inform any potential expansion of the model in the future. The evaluation aims to report its findings by Summer 2025.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing non-repayable maintenance grant funding for higher education students from the least advantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs. The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year.
In addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students. The department has also made a further £10 million of one-off support available to help student mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year the department has increased the Student Premium, including the full-time, part-time and disabled premium, by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the 2024/25 academic year will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.
Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household. The department believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing non-repayable maintenance grants for higher education students from the least advantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government believes that income-contingent student loans are a fair and sensible way of financing higher education. It is only right that those who benefit from the system should make a fair contribution to its costs. The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year.
In addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.
The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students. The department has also made a further £10 million of one-off support available to help student mental health and hardship funding for the 2023/24 academic year. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For the 2024/25 financial year the department has increased the Student Premium, including the full-time, part-time and disabled premium, by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the 2024/25 academic year will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.
Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is an average of £3,800 per UK household. The department believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in higher education to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children with SEND are provided with the (a) educational and (b) wider support required by their education, health and care plan in school.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department shares the ambition that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should receive the vital support they need across Education, Health and Care (EHC). As set out in the Children and Families Act 2014, the local authority has a legal duty to ensure that the special educational provision specified in an EHC plan is delivered. The department also has a number of measures in place to ensure that children receive the educational and wider support they need.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a set of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses. The department is also investing heavily in the SEND system, including £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and alternative provision (AP) places and improve existing support, including the announcement of 41 new special free schools.
The department is also taking steps to improve the SEND system in the longer term, so that EHC plans can be issued as quickly as possible when needed and enable children and young people to access the support they require. In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the SEND system through its SEND and AP Improvement Plan. This plan commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment. The department is currently testing measures which it believes will make the biggest improvements to both the quality of plans, the experience of getting a plan and the quality and speed with which support is put in place.
The department is strengthening accountability across the system so that everyone is held to account for supporting children and young people. This includes the new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Area SEND inspection framework, which gives more prominence to the quality integration and commissioning of EHC services, and a national and local dashboard, which gives parents the opportunity to monitor the performance of their local systems.
If a child or young person does not receive the support detailed in their EHC plan, the young person or parent can raise their concern with the school or local authority directly. Families can appeal to the First-Tier SEND Tribunal if they are unhappy with a local authority’s decision regarding an EHC assessment or plan. The Tribunal can also hear appeals and make non-binding recommendations about health and social aspects of EHC plans.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if NHS England will (a) fund and (b) publish a data dashboard to help integrated care boards commission children and young people’s palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has developed an all-age palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place in an easily accessible format. The dashboard is accessible to integrated care boards (ICBs) and their commissioners and helps them understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, including children and young people. This supports commissioners in their statutory duty for palliative and end of life care, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly based on prevalence.
Funding has been confirmed to ensure continued maintenance of the dashboard for 2024/25, with discussions ongoing regarding further development and use. There is, however, existing publicly available data, such as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities ‘Fingertips’ data on palliative and end of life care.