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  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of regulation of the quality of social care paid for through Direct Payments.

    Alistair Burt

    The Care Act 2014 places a duty on local authorities to meet an individual’s eligible needs for care and support. If a person is assessed as being eligible for care and support from their local authority, they must be provided with a care plan to help decide the best way to meet their needs. People may choose to take a direct payment with which to purchase their own care and support, or they may wish to receive services arranged by their local authority, or a combination of both.

    It is important that people are enabled to be flexible to choose care and support from a diverse range of sources. This may include registered care providers but also “non-service” options, such as information and communication technologies and personal assistants. Providers of adult social care must register with the national regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is responsible for regulating the quality and safety of services. However, non-care services, including personal assistance services, are not required to register with the CQC.

    Statutory guidance issued under the Care Act makes it clear that local authorities should provide people with appropriate advice concerning their use of direct payments, including how they differ from traditional services and provide helpful information such as the difference between purchasing regulated and unregulated services, for example, personal assistants, to help people make fully informed decisions on how best to meet their needs.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 22 October 2015 to the hon. Member for Bath to Question 11880, how much of the funding for the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme has been (a) spent on and (b) allocated to mental health support.

    Alistair Burt

    The bidding and assessment process for the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme is now complete. We are looking forward to making an announcement of the successful bids shortly. Mental health is a key issue for homeless people – often part of a range of multiple and complex conditions. The programme will help address these mental health issues by providing decent accommodation and health support for some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 12 September 2014 to Question 208785, how much of the £17 million budget for the NHS England Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Transformation programme for 2014-15 was spent; and on what that funding was spent.

    Alistair Burt

    The full £17 million has been spent on the NHS England and Health Education England Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) Transformation programme for 2014-15.

    The funds were spent on delivering the programme to 65 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) partnerships of National Health Service and local authority commissioners working with statutory and non-statutory providers covering 68% of the 0-19 population in England. The model of delivery for the programme is through five Learning Collaboratives made up of Higher Education Institutes and the relevant CAMHS partnerships.

    The collaboratives deliver training, peer mentoring for new partnerships and have a support and challenge role to enable services to deliver a choice of evidence based outcomes focussed interventions in collaboration with children, young people and their families.

    Partnerships also receive funds to backfill staff whilst training, outreach service development and infrastructure improvement.

    In addition, the programme funded participation by children, young people and parents at a national and local level and data capture to inform service planning.

    The direct training delivered includes:

    – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression;

    – Parenting Therapy for the treatment of conduct disorders in those aged 0-10;

    – Interpersonal Therapy for Adolescents for the treatment of moderate to severe depression;

    – Systemic Family Practice for the treatment of conduct disorders in the over 10s, self-harm and depression, and eating disorders;

    – Enhanced Evidence Based Practice which teaches practitioners the basic principles of CYP IAPT;

    – All therapy courses have a course for training supervisors; and

    – Service leadership and management.

    The table below outlines the numbers of trainees that were recruited in the 14-15 academic year.

    Training Numbers from 14-15

    Course

    Number of trainees

    Therapy training

    262

    Supervisor training

    87

    Practitioner training

    178

    Service leaders

    59

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the £40 million his Department has allocated to refurbish homeless hostels to support health improvement in 2015-16 (a) has been spent and (b) has been allocated to support mental health improvement; at which hostels such refurbishment work has started; and when at which hostels such refurbishment work is planned.

    Alistair Burt

    The bidding and assessment process for the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme is now complete. We are looking forward to making an announcement of the successful bids shortly. Mental health is a key issue for homeless people – often part of a range of multiple and complex conditions. The programme will help address these mental health issues by providing decent accommodation and health support for some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

  • James Cartlidge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    James Cartlidge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cartlidge on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the representation on the boards of NHS England, Monitor and other relevant health bodies at local, regional and national levels of people with a background in the mental health services; and if he will make a statement.

    George Freeman

    Non-executive appointments to the boards of the Department’s arm’s length bodies, including NHS England and Monitor, are advertised widely and open to all in line with the requirements of the Commissioner for Public appointments. The application process is open to candidates with a background in mental health services.

    Applications are treated equally and appointments are made on merit. There are board members of arm’s length bodies appointed through this process that have a mental health services background.

    Non-executive appointments to National Health Service trusts are made by the NHS Trust Development Authority and are also regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

    Candidates are appointed on merit where they can add the best value to the needs of the individual board, ensuring that the board contains a balance of experience and skills in different areas, which can include mental health services.

    Executive board appointments are made by the organisations themselves.

  • Julie Cooper – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to extend the hours of social workers and other professionals required to support doctors in their new working arrangements to meet the Government’s aspiration for a seven day a week NHS.

    Alistair Burt

    Local authorities are already working with their local health service partners towards ensuring appropriate 7 day 24 hour social work cover. Out of hours social services and emergency duty services are already in place and some local authorities are employing social workers along with occupational therapists to work at weekends to manage safe hospital discharge and other requirements such as equipment provision, to ensure people have appropriate and timely support to leave hospital.

    We recognise that providing high quality urgent and emergency services seven days a week requires far more than just doctors to be present, and that nurses, diagnostic staff, and other allied health professionals all play an invaluable role in caring for patients. It will be for local providers and their Local Education and Training Boards to develop workforce plans for delivering seven day services in hospitals which will make the best use of staff skills and expertise. While there may be additional staff needed, we are working with NHS England to make sure we have the workforce we need, including looking at new working patterns and roles such as physician associates.

  • Gerald Kaufman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Gerald Kaufman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Kaufman on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he intends to answer the letter to him from the Right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton to her dated 19 October 2015 on Mr K. Joslin.

    Mr David Lidington

    I apologise for the delay to the response to the letter from the Right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton of 19 October 2015. The letter covered a number of complex issues and, in order to provide the Rt hon. Member with the most comprehensive response, the reply to this letter has been delayed.

    I, along with my ministerial colleagues, take correspondence from members of this House very seriously and always seek to provide comprehensive and informative responses.

  • Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the safety of British tourists in Tunisia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We continue to advise against all but essential travel to Tunisia. We advise any British nationals who choose to travel to or remain in Tunisia to check that their insurance policy provides adequate cover, to be especially vigilant and to follow the advice of the Tunisian security authorities.

    We have almost doubled our support for Tunisia this year. We are working closely with the Tunisian government to improve their protective security and build their capacity to deter and respond to terrorist threats. We are also working with professionals in the tourist industry in popular tourist areas such as Sousse and Hammamet to build their awareness of the threat and to put in place appropriate security measures.

  • Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to review his Department’s advice against all but essential travel to Tunisia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We keep our travel advice for Tunisia under regular review, taking into account the current terrorist threat and the Tunisian capacity to deter and respond to that threat. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) discussed the issue with the Tunisian government when he visited on 27 November.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government is doing to encourage Saudi Arabia and other parties to the conflict in Yemen to refrain from using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas in Yemen.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    International Humanitarian Law (IHL) provides that no weapon should be used indiscriminately, disproportionately, or to deliberately target civilians and civilian objects. These rules are applicable to situations where explosive weapons are used in populated areas.

    We take all reports of alleged violations of IHL in Yemen very seriously. We have raised our concerns with the Saudi Arabian-led coalition and received assurances that they are complying with IHL. We continue to engage with them on those assurances and urge all parties to the conflict to act in compliance with IHL.