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  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to improve suicide prevention policies in response to the statistics on suicides in the UK, 2013 Registrations, published by the Office for National Statistics on 19 January 2016.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government has invested over £1.5 million on suicide and self-harm prevention research since the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to inform and target our strategy for reducing suicide rates.

    In January last year, we asked local areas to aspire to an ambition of zero suicides, to raise awareness around mental health and suicide prevention in particular.

    We are in the early stages of discussions about re-invigorating the National Strategy to drive local delivery. We are developing those plans for this, and will make an announcement shortly.

    The highest cause of death in young men and women in England is death through suicide, and rapid skilled response through a well-publicised access route is essential to reduce mortality. The NHS111 Mental Health Programme has been set up specifically to improve services and NHS England is working with Mind and the Telephone Helplines Partnership to develop a training course designed by people with lived experience specifically to support 111 call handlers deliver the best possible response in times of crisis.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of proposed changes to housing benefit on tenants in supported housing and their access to mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    Shortly, we will be engaging colleagues across Government on the proposed changes to housing benefit. As the cross-Government lead, the Department for Work and Pensions is coordinating any work to understand the likely impact of the reforms.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the evidential basis provided by his Department to HM Treasury was to inform the decision to cap housing benefit for people in supported housing.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department did not submit any evidence to HM Treasury to inform the decision to cap housing benefit for those in supported housing, announced in the Spending Review 2015.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2016 to Question 25729, when he plans to (a) complete the BAME benchmarking pilot and (b) publish the benchmarking tool.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England will begin the collection and analysis of responses from services in March. Following final sign off, NHS England expect to publish the benchmarking tool no later than June 2016.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25549, if he will have discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) Work and Pensions, (b) Communities and Local Government and (c) other Government departments on proposed changes to housing benefit for tenants in supported housing; and if he will make an estimate of the number of people likely to be affected by the proposed change.

    Alistair Burt

    Shortly, we will be engaging colleagues across Government on the proposed changes to housing benefit. As the cross-Government lead, the Department for Work and Pensions is coordinating any work to understand the likely impact of the reforms.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2015 to Question 14327, on junior doctors: conditions of employment, whether future junior doctors will receive a salary equivalent in real terms to the salary guaranteed to the current cohort of junior doctors to whom pay protection will apply.

    Ben Gummer

    Average earnings for junior doctors will remain the same under the new contract as under the existing contract. This will apply equally to future junior doctors as to the current cohort.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25465, if he will publish the (a) total value and (b) number of grants made by his Department in the last 12 months as part of (i) the Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development scheme, (ii) the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund, (iii) the Strategic Partnership Programme and (iv) Specific Policy Grants supporting Departmental policy.

    Alistair Burt

    The following information shows new grant awards made by the Department in the financial year 2015/16. Recipients of grants include voluntary organisations. The Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development scheme and the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund grant awards shown here span a period of up to three years.

    Scheme / Programme

    New Awards Made (£)

    Number of New Awards made

    Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development

    £5,980,964

    14

    Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund

    £2,789,777

    25

    Strategic Partner Programme

    £4,020,000

    23

    Specific Policy Grants

    £133,112,643

    25
  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2016 to Question 25818, on NHS England: Deloitte, how many policies NHS England is working on with Deloitte and its clinical reference group.

    George Freeman

    Due to the need to safeguard commercial-in-confidence information, we are unable to provide a breakdown of the number of policies completed within the contract.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many junior doctors are employed by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

    Ben Gummer

    As of 31 October 2015, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust employed 389 full time equivalent doctors in the relevant grades.

    This is the latest available data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Provisional NHS Hospital and Community Health Service monthly workforce statistics, which are published monthly online.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to fill the role previously held by the National Clinical Director for Adult Neurology at NHS England; and what assessment his Department has made of the contribution of that role to NHS services.

    Jane Ellison

    Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s Medical Director, has undertaken a review of the National Clinical Director (NCD) resource designed to focus clinical advisory resources on areas where major programmes of work are currently being taking forward, or areas identified as priorities for improvement. As a result of the review, NHS England has proposed to change the way in which clinical advice is received in speciality areas in the future.

    Where there will no longer be a specific NCD role, NHS England will secure expert clinical advice from its Clinical Networks and through its relationships with professional bodies and by appointing clinical advisors. For neurology it is planned that access to advice will be through clinical leads and members of the NHS England-funded neurology clinical networks, the Neurology Clinical Reference Group and Royal Colleges. It is expected that these new arrangements will be in place from 1 April 2016.

    The Neurology Intelligence Network (NIN) is a joint partnership programme between Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England to support the generation and dissemination of neurology related health intelligence. PHE currently funds the on-going design, development and management of the NIN.