Tag: Heidi Alexander

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding his Department will make available for Public Health England’s awareness campaign on the symptoms of serious infections; and what proportion of that funding will be spent on sepsis awareness.

Jane Ellison

The Department funds Public Health England to undertake a range of social marketing campaigns to support behaviour change and public awareness. This work will be funded within the annual budget as will the work on other infections, such as influenza, as well as non-infectious diseases. Further planning work will be undertaken to determine the budget for this activity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his official engagements were on (a) Monday 12 October and (b) Friday 20 November 2015.

Jane Ellison

On 12 October and 20 November my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State was fully focused on his priorities for the health service, which included securing a Spending Review settlement that backs the NHS’s own Five Year Forward View with an additional £10 billion a year above inflation by 2020.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many meetings have taken place between NHS Improvement and NHS trusts to agree plans to improve their financial position since 15 January; which providers have had such meetings with NHS Improvement; and when each such meeting took place.

Ben Gummer

Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority (NHS TDA) (becoming NHS Improvement from 1 April 2016) engage with National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts on a daily basis and staff regularly meet with these organisations to review and support their plans to improve their financial positions.

Since 15 January, senior representatives have met with seven trusts for face to face meetings and have also attended events, with a number of trusts represented, to discuss the 2015/16 financial year and financial planning for 2016/17. In addition, senior representatives have also met with NHS Providers to discuss these issues and fed into their communications to the provider sector on these topics.

All trusts will be submitting draft financial plans for 2016/17 to Monitor and the NHS TDA in due course. Monitor and the NHS TDA will continue to engage further with trusts as appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve his Department’s collection of data for secondary breast cancer.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for collecting cancer data to support national cancer registration in England and recognises the importance of collecting data on recurrent breast cancer.

At present pilot work in acute trusts has improved the reporting for breast cancer recurrence and metastasis to the National Cancer Registration Service but the uptake has been slow and the data is not complete. Further work is being scoped by NHS England and PHE based on the recommendation in the recent Independent Cancer Taskforce report to establish robust surveillance systems to collect this data on all cancers.

Data on the number of people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer is not currently available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the (a) standard and (b) higher rate for NHS-funded nursing care is for 2016-17.

Alistair Burt

Following a recent review of the rate of NHS-funded Nursing Care (NHS FNC) in England, the Department has not yet announced the standard and higher rates of NHS FNC for 2016-17. We will make an announcement in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which hospitals he has visited in an official capacity in 2015-16 to date; and what the date of each such visit was.

Jane Ellison

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has undertaken the following visits to hospitals services in an official capacity since January 2015.

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 5 February 2016 to Question 25603, on NHS: finance, with which seven trusts Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority have met since 15 January 2016.

Ben Gummer

Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority are unable to disclose the seven trust names that they have met since 15 January for commercial-in-confidence reasons.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that secondary breast cancer patients have access to a clinical nurse specialist as part of their care.

Jane Ellison

The independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, in July last year, recognising the importance of access to clinical nurse specialists or other key workers for patients with all types of cancer.

NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to implement the recommendations of the Cancer Taskforce and has appointed Cally Palmer CBE (Chief Executive of the Royal Marsden) as National Cancer Director to lead on implementation, as well as new cancer vanguards to redesign care and patient experience. She has set up a new Cancer Transformation Board to implement the strategy, which met for the first time on 25 January. There will also be a Cancer Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Harpal Kumar, to oversee and scrutinise the work of the Transformation Board.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) on how many occasions and (b) in relation to which schools since 2010 an Academy Order has been rescinded due to the inability of the Regional Schools Commissioner to secure a sponsor.

Edward Timpson

Since the Education and Adoption Act came into force in April 2016, the Secretary of State has been under a duty to make an Academy Order in respect of any maintained school that has been judged by Ofsted to be inadequate. Regional Schools Commissioners, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, ensure that the maintained school becomes a sponsored academy as swiftly as possible, after considering the circumstances in the school, and then identifying the most suitable sponsor.

No Academy Orders have been revoked to date.

143 Academy Orders have been made since the new duty came into force. It is too soon to give an annual average of how long it has taken to match a school to a sponsor under these new arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations his Department has received (a) since his appointment as Secretary of State and (b) since the appointment of his predecessor in that post expressing concerns about Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Alistair Burt

A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified 40 items of correspondence expressing concerns about Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. This figure represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.

In 2014, NHS England initiated action including an investigation of the deaths of all patients of the trust who had been in receipt of mental health or learning disability services since 2011.

We are advised by NHS England that a first draft of the Mazars report was shared with it and Southern Health Foundation Trust in September 2015. The Department has not received a copy of the report and the report is still to be finalised before publication.