Tag: Baroness Redfern

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to raise awareness of mental health issues, to address the impact of stigma and discrimination on those affected, and to engage with local businesses to develop employment opportunities for those affected.

Lord Prior of Brampton

It is important that local authorities employ individuals who possess the necessary skills to engage effectively with those with mental health problems. Local authorities should make training opportunities available to all staff.

Mental health social workers empower individuals with mental illness and their families, carers, and communities to lead fulfilling, independent lives. On 1 September this year applications for a new fast track route into mental health social work careers opened for an intensive on-the-job programme called Think Ahead. The programme aims to attract promising students and graduates into mental health careers.

Health Education England, working with NHS England, aims to ensure that there are suf­ficient therapists and other staff with the right skills to support the identification of mental health issues.

Community mental health services, which include community mental health teams, crisis and home resolution teams, assertive outreach teams and early intervention in psychosis teams, all have a key role in supporting people with mental health problems either to avoid the need for in-patient care or to provide them with on-going support once in-patient treatment is no longer necessary.

From April 2016, the first set of mental health waiting time standards will be introduced which requires that 50% of people experiencing a first episode of psychosis are treated with a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved package of care within two weeks of referral; 75% of adults referred to the national programme for psychological therapies will be treated within 6 weeks, and 95% within 18 weeks.

This is supported by an £80 million funding package for 2015-16 from NHS England’s budgets, breaking down as:

‒ £40 million recurrent funding to support delivery of the early intervention in psychosis (EIP) standard;

‒ £10 million to support delivery of the new psychological therapies standards; and

‒ £30 million to support liaison psychiatry in acute hospitals.

The Time to Change initiative is an ambitious national programme being delivered by leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness to reduce stigma and discrimination towards people with mental health problems. The Department, the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief have all provided funding for the programme.The Department funded the campaign with over £16 million between 2011-12 and 2014-15 and is continuing to fund the programme with £2.5 million in 2015-16. Time to Change continues to work with people with experience of mental health problems to challenge attitudes and discrimination; run social marketing campaigns and work with local and regional partners on community-led activity. To date, more than 350 organisations across England have committed to tackling mental health stigma and discrimination in the workplace.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-03-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current and future financial impact of private finance initiative projects on NHS Hospital Trusts (1) nationally, and (2) in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Lord Prior of Brampton

HM Treasury holds information on the current estimated revenue payments for the lifetime of each health sector private finance initiative (PFI) in a live online database. This shows that for the 106 National Health Service PFI schemes that have now been signed, the estimated total revenue payments (over the lifetime of their contracts) are £79.0 billion (in nominal terms i.e. including an inflation assumption). This is from the date of the first construction completions in 2000-01 to the date of the very last payment in 2049-50. The revenue payment figures include not just the financing costs (debt repayment and interest) for initial construction but also the costs of all the other services such as building maintenance and support services (cleaning, catering, portering etc) provided over the lifetime of the contract. The payments are subject to meeting agreed performance and quality standards and include an annual uprate assumption for inflation of 2.5%.

This Government launched an initiative in 2011 to extract savings and optimise value for money in operational PFI contracts. This included a pilot exercise at a major NHS PFI scheme which resulted in guidance with appropriate methodology and lessons learned being issued to all relevant NHS trusts in 2012. The Department has specialist officials to assist trusts in implementing the guidance.

An extract giving details of PFI schemes in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is attached.

Further information on PFI projects nationally can be accessed via HM Treasury’s website as follows. The files are too large to attach to this reply, however when searching, the ‘Current projects as at 31 March 2015’ spreadsheet should be opened. This will show the latest estimates collected from each department as at the end of March 2015; the health sector schemes are clearly marked “Department of Health” and then “DH-Acute (i.e. Hospitals)”. The initial capital cost of each scheme is shown in Column R and the annual revenue payment in the columns headed ‘Unitary Charge Payment’ (UCP). The total of UCPs (England) for 2014-15, the latest audited figure (Column AO), is £1.9 billion.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-finance-initiative-and-private-finance-2-projects-2015-summary-data

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures University Technical Colleges are taking to increase choices for students, especially with regard to strengthening academic study with practical learning.

Lord Nash

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) specialise in subjects that need modern, technical, industry-standard equipment, such as engineering and digital technologies. Pupils integrate academic study with practical learning, studying core GCSEs within a high-quality technical and professional curriculum. UTCs work with local and national employers and higher education institutions to design and deliver a curriculum that, through technical projects and work experience, will provide pupils with the skills employers demand for their industries. The importance of involving employers in education is a key part of the government’s recently announced plans for ground-breaking reforms to technical and professional education.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-09-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between those NHS Trusts in the greatest level of deficit and those with the highest proportion of private finance initiative income.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

In 2012, the Department identified a small cohort of major acute trusts where the private finance initiative schemes were one of the factors affecting financial sustainability. These trusts have been given access to a £1.5 billion support fund over a period of 25 years which has been available since 2013/14.

It is the role now of NHS Improvement to ensure that National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts assess the impact of different expenditure items at NHS trusts to ensure that NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts have arrangements in place to secure financial health. NHS Improvement’s focus is then on supporting that individual provider to fix its financial problems, for example through interim financial support or longer term solutions in that health economy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of job opportunities created so far by Enterprise Zones, including how many of those opportunities are full-time, part-time, work experience or apprenticeship opportunities, both within each zone and in the surrounding area.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The job opportunities which Enterprise Zones have attracted are published quarterly on a national and regional performance basis. The most recently published data covers the period up until the end of June 2015 and shows that the 24 Enterprise Zones established since 2012 have already attracted 20,676 jobs and that this number had increased by 9 per cent between March and June 2015.

Information on the type of jobs or the number of jobs within individual zones or surrounding areas is not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-09-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to revise the boundaries of Clinical Commissioning Groups in the light of regional devolution deals.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

NHS England has no plans to revise the boundaries of clinical commissioning groups in light of regional devolution deals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships were created in the last Parliament (1) nationally, and (2) in North Lincolnshire, and how many they are intending to create during this Parliament.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

There have been 324,800 apprenticeship starts in the manufacturing technologies sector subject area nationally in the last parliament (May 2010 to April 2015).

In North Lincolnshire Local Authority there have been 1,500 apprenticeship starts in the manufacturing technologies sector subject area in the last parliament (May 2010 to April 2015).

We are committed to reaching 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020.

The locations and sectors where apprenticeships are available are determined by employers choosing to offer apprenticeships and recruit apprentices. We have therefore set no specific regional targets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-09-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which five clinical procedures have the highest average waiting time in England.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

Patients have a legal right, set out in the NHS Constitution, to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions. The NHS Constitution for England is attached, as is the Handbook to the Constitution, which provides a further level of detail regarding the rights and pledges. Performance is measured against an operational standard that 92% of patients who have not yet started treatment should have been waiting less than 18 weeks from referral at the end of each month. These referral to treatment waiting times are collected for 18 treatment functions (e.g. trauma and orthopaedics), but not for individual conditions or procedures. They are different from the data derived from hospital episode statistics, which show only the waiting time from decision to admit to admission, and not the waiting time from referral to start of treatment.

Table: The five treatment functions that had the highest average waiting time from referral to treatment in July 2016, in England

Treatment Function	Average (median) waiting time (in weeks)
Neurosurgery	8.4
Oral Surgery	7.3
Neurology	7.0
Trauma and Orthopaedics	7.0
Cardiothoracic Surgery	7.0

Source: Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times, NHS England

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-12-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to increase the number of Wellbeing Hubs nationally to help individuals with complex care requirements to access support locally for their individual requirements.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Where commissioned, wellbeing hubs can provide a range services including lifestyle advice, information about self-management courses and help to access local support, including social care. It is for the local National Health Service to decide whether to commission wellbeing hubs and which services should be offered in order to best meet the needs of local populations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-09-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cancer referrals in England were not made within the two week waiting time target for each of the last three years.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

The Handbook to the NHS Constitution, which is attached, sets out the right for patients to be seen by a cancer specialist within a maximum of two weeks from general practitioner (GP) referral for urgent referrals where cancer is suspected. The operational standard is that 93% of patients should wait less than two weeks from GP urgent referral to first consultant appointment. This standard has been met in each of the last three years.

The information for how many patients waited more than two weeks from GP urgent referral to first consultant appointment is shown in the table below.

Table: Two week wait from GP urgent referral to first consultant appointment, in England, 2013/14 to 2015/16

Year	Number of patients that waited less than two weeks to be seen	Number of patients that waited more than two weeks to be seen	Total number of patients referred	Performance against the standard
2013/14	1,297,849	63,496	1,361,345	95.3%
2014/15	1,459,084	90,610	1,549,694	94.2%
2015/16	1,624,981	101,140	1,726,121	94.1%

Source: Cancer waiting times quarterly time series, NHS England