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  • 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 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will respond to the Cabinet Office funded report relating to early deaths among people with mental health problems.

    Alistair Burt

    We know that people with severe mental illness can die 15-20 years earlier than the general population and that for too long this particular health inequality has had insufficient attention paid to it. We have committed NHS England through the NHS Mandate to take action to reduce premature death for people with mental illness. We are also investing more than ever before in mental health services, we have put into legislation that mental health should have equal priority to physical health and we are improving access to services by implementing the first ever waiting times for mental health services.

    We will consider the findings of the report and respond in due course.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to change attitudes to personal health issues among men.

    Jane Ellison

    We recognise that men do not seek medical help as often as women, and their health can suffer as a result and that changing their behaviours could reduce premature death, illness and costs to society. The Department does not have a separate policy approach to men’s health as all policy subjects are expected to take into account equality issues as they are developed.

    In 2013, Public Health England was established to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities, working with national and local government, the National Health Service, industry, academia, the public and the voluntary and community sector. Local authorities are responsible for assessing the current and future health needs of their local population and targeting of interventions to reduce health inequalities. We have also given local authorities the flexibility to innovate and tailor services to meet local individual and population needs.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to (a) reduce waiting times for children to receive an assessment for a mental health condition and (b) address the disparity between those waiting times across different NHS mental health trusts.

    Alistair Burt

    Waiting times are not currently collected centrally, however the Government accepts there is variation in waiting times and is committed to improving access and is introducing the first ever waiting time standards for mental health services.

    These include an access and waiting time standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder. This states that National Institute of Health and Care Excellence concordant treatment should commence within a maximum of four weeks from first contact with a designated healthcare professional for routine cases and within one week for urgent cases. Data collected in 2016 will help inform incremental percentage increases in compliance with the standard, with the aim of 95% of patients being treated within the standard’s timescale by 2020.

    We have also introduced an access and waiting times standard on Early Intervention in Psychosis announced in Mental health services: achieving better access by 2020 which came into force in April 2015. Whilst focused on all ages, most individuals experiencing a first episode of psychosis are in the 16-25 age group.

    The setting of a blanket access and waiting time standard for children and young people’s mental health services is not feasible due to the wide range of conditions, services and care pathways this covers. However, NHS England will be working with partner organisations to lead work on the development of further access and waiting time standards for children’s mental health as part of the transformation programme on children and young people’s mental health.

    At a local level, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have worked with local partners to produce Local Transformation Plans for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing that will set out how they will improve support for children and young people in line with the vision in Future in mind. In addition, CCGs have legal duty to consider the need to reduce inequalities in access to, and outcomes from healthcare services, and we would expect commissioners to have due regard to waiting times as part of this.

    The new Mental Health Services Dataset will begin from January 2016, to provide data for both adults and children on outcomes, length of treatment, the source of referral, location of appointment and demographic information.

  • Iain Wright – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Iain Wright – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Wright on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the fit and proper test for individuals running care homes for the elderly; and what plans he has to make changes to that test.

    Alistair Burt

    All providers of regulated health and adult social care activities in England are required to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and to meet a set of registration requirements relating to safety and quality. The CQC has a range of enforcement powers that it can use when these standards are not met. These registration requirements include the fitness of service providers where the provider is an individual or partnership, as well as the fitness of registered managersand the fitness of staff. Since April 2015, the directors of all registered service providers have also been required to meet a fit and proper person requirement. The registered provider is responsible for ensuring that these requirements are met. The Department keeps the requirements for registration with the CQC under review. There are no current plans to make changes to the fit and proper person requirements that apply to registered providers.

  • Iain Wright – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Iain Wright – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Wright on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that adequate funding is provided to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust to maintain a full range of services during the winter period.

    Jane Ellison

    Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Group received an additional £1,994,000 in its baseline in 2015/16 with the specific purpose of ensuring resilience throughout the year, of this funding around two-thirds was allocated to North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of depression among new mothers.

    Alistair Burt

    Reducing the incidence of depression among new mothers is a high priority for the Government.

    The Mandate from the Government for the National Health Service includes an objective for NHS England to work with partner organisations to reduce the incidence and impact of postnatal depression through earlier diagnosis, and better intervention and support.

    The NHS Mandate also includes an objective that every woman has a named midwife who is responsible for ensuring she has personalised care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period. This will help clinicians to identify perinatal mental health problems as early as possible and to give women the support they need.

    To help achieve this we have increased the number of midwives by over 1,800 and the number of health visitors by over 3,500 since May 2010. In addition, 6,400 midwifery students and an extra 1,000 health visitors are in training respectively.

    We are also working to improve the provision of perinatal mental health services which is why it was announced in the March budget that the Government would invest an additional £75 million over the next five years, £15 million per year, to support women with mental ill health in the perinatal period. NHS England is leading a work programme to ensure that this extra money is spent in the right way, at the right time and in the right places. This work is being carried out collaboratively with partner organisations, including the Department and Public Health England, clinical experts and service users.

    Health Education England (HEE) has committed to ensure that the right knowledge and training is available so that the NHS is skilled in how it looks after women’s mental as well as physical health. The HEE Mandate includes an objective that there will be specialist perinatal mental health staff available for every birthing unit by 2017. HEE is also committed to working with the medical royal colleges to support specific perinatal mental health training being incorporated into the syllabus for doctors in postgraduate training by 2017.

    The Department has funded the Institute of Health Visitors which has trained over 600 perinatal mental health visitor champions to enable health visitors to identify and manage perinatal depression and other maternal mental health conditions.

    The Department has also funded the Maternal Health Care Policy Research Unit to undertake a project to develop and pilot test a perinatal mental health indicator which would reflect the mental health care a woman receives at certain critical perinatal time-points; the antenatal booking, the early postnatal period, and approximately one year postnatally.

    In line with the approach on other access and waiting time standards, NHS England appointed the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to run expert engagement and produce implementation outputs, for example commissioning guidance and model pathways. An Expert Reference Group has been formed to oversee this work. NHS England plan to be able to make the recommendations of the group public as soon as possible.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with the Indian Prime Minister on Kashmir during his recent visit to the UK.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) and Indian Prime Minister Modi did not discuss Kashmir during the recent visit. The long standing position of the UK is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting resolution to the situation in Kashmir, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government plans to take other than airstrikes to respond to the threat posed by ISIS.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    As the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (David Cameron) said last week, the UK has a full spectrum approach to defeating ISIL – covering military power, counter-terrorism expertise and defeating its poisonous narrative.

    The UK is playing a leading role in the Global Coalition of 65 members, through which we are squeezing ISIL’s finances and the flow of fighters, challenging its ideology and stabilising liberated areas.

    The UK leads the effort to undermine ISIL’s narrative, co-chairing the Coalitions’ Strategic Communications Working Group and hosting the Coalition Communications Cell.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his (a) Iranian and (b) Russian counterparts to discuss the threat posed by ISIS; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK does not always agree with the views expressed by Russia and Iran, but we are open to discussion on how best to deal with ISIL and bring peace and security to the region.

    At the G20, the Prime Minister and President Putin agreed that the international community needed to find a way to work together to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria and focus on the shared aim of destroying ISIL.

    Iran’s role in fostering instability in the Middle East continues to be a source of concern. The newly opened Embassy in Tehran is an opportunity to discuss a range of regional issues with Iranian counterparts, including shared threats such as ISIL. The UK has discussed ISIL with Iranian President Rouhani, as well as Ministers and officials.

    Both Russia and Iran have attended the talks in Vienna aimed at finding a political solution to the situation in Syria. The UK will continue to play a leading role in the International Syria Support Group.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts from Arab League states on the threat posed by ISIS; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK has regular discussions with Arab League states, most of which are members of the Global Coalition to counter ISIL. It is crucial we work together to defeat ISIL. Ensuring peace and stability in the region is an important part of the UK’s counter ISIL strategy.

    ISIL has been on the agenda during all recent discussions with Arab League states. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (David Cameron) and President Sisi spoke about a range of foreign policy issues, including ISIL, during his visit to London earlier this month. The Prime Minister also met His Majesty King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the margins of the G20. In October and November, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Philip Hammond) had extensive discussions about ISIL when he visited Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and engaged with regional countries during the talks on Syria held in Vienna on 14 November.