Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what consultations he plans to undertake on the levels of bursaries and salary support for trainee clinical psychologists in the 2017-18 cohort.

Ben Gummer

Health Education England (HEE) funding for trainees in clinical psychology is currently determined at a local level based on local need and is subject to annual workforce planning. For 2016-17, HEE will fund those commissions set out in the HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan for 2016-17. HEE’s plans for training clinical psychologists remain unchanged from 2015-16 with 526 commissions proposed for 2016-17. HEE will set out its plans for 2017-18 training commissions in its next annual Commissioning and Investment Plan or Workforce Plan for England which is expected to be published in December 2016 prior to the start of the financial year.

The Government is currently consulting on how the education and funding reforms for pre-registration undergraduate and postgraduate non-medical courses (nursing, midwifery and allied health courses) which are currently funded through both HEE funded tuition and an NHS bursary/reduced rate loan for maintenance are most successfully implemented. Respondents to the consultation may wish to raise issues relating to the funding for courses operating outside of this model, such as clinical psychology training programmes. The Government will consider these in the context of its consultation response.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether there is a team within his Department with specific responsibility for children and young people’s mental health.

Alistair Burt

Yes, there is a team within the Department with specific responsibility for those areas of policy on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing for which the Secretary of State for Health is accountable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on which organisations have offered mental health support to veterans in (a) England, (b) Merseyside and (c) Liverpool in each year since 2010.

Mark Lancaster

In the UK, primary responsibility for the provision of healthcare, including mental healthcare, for veterans rests with the NHS in England and the Devolved Administrations. Funding of mental healthcare for veterans is a matter for the NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups in England and their equivalents in the Devolved Administrations. These bodies will hold information on the organisations providing mental healthcare to veterans in the UK.

The Ministry of Defence provides advice, information and signposting to support services for veterans though its Veterans UK web pages and free telephone helpline service and we encourage veterans wishing to seek help with mental health problems to visit: www.gov.uk/mental-health-support-for-the-uk-armed-forces or call the 24-hour veterans’ mental health helpline on 0800 138 1619.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2016 to Question 40562, if his Department will publish details of which stakeholders it plans to engage with before publishing its response to the consultation on healthcare student funding.

Mr Philip Dunne

The healthcare education funding reforms is a transformative policy with cross-cutting implications for both health and education sectors. Through agreed governance arrangements, the Department of Health, the Department for Education and HM Treasury have worked with health and education partners ahead of publishing the Government response.

A list of respondents to the public consultation is included in the Government response published on 21 July 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many deaths by suicide in each age group have been recorded within one month of being released from prison in England in each year since 2010.

Nicola Blackwood

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the population affected by (a) foetal alcohol syndrome and (b) foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in (a) Liverpool, Wavertree constituency, (b) Liverpool, (c) the Liverpool City Region and (d) England.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Department has made no estimate of the proportion of the population affected by Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in England, regionally or locally.

The diagnosis for babies born with FAS may not be made easily at birth, and problems may present only later in childhood, for example at school. Estimates for the incidence of FASD are still more uncertain and relate to the lack of consensus on diagnostic criteria for these conditions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to include in the Government’s mandate to NHS England for 2017-18 an explicit requirement to reduce premature mortality among people with autism.

David Mowat

NHS England is due to publish data from the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework. These data, include indicators on mental health and learning disabilities that relate to the objectives set out in the mandate to NHS England. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health will publish his Annual Assessment of NHS England, including progress against the mandate objectives, at the end of this financial year. The 2017-18 mandate to NHS England, including agreed future objectives for NHS England, will be published in due course.

The ‘Think Autism’ Adult Autism Strategy for England set out a clear, cross-Government programme of action, developed with people with autism to improve lives, reduce premature mortality and reduce the health gap for people with autism. This would be achieved through better access to healthcare for people with autism and by making improvements to services. In January 2016, a cross-Government Report on progress on implementation of the Think Autism Strategy was published which set out new recommendations for going forward.

The Department is represented on the Study Steering Committee for the SHAPE (Supporting adults with High-functioning Autism and Asperger syndrome) project. This is a national study led by the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York. Stage 1 of the project aims to describe and map provision of autism services in England which fulfil the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s description of a Specialist Autism Team. A report will be published shortly including information about the service models and care pathways which different localities have implemented.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Band 7 NHS psychologists were employed in each year since 2010-11.

Ben Gummer

The attached table shows the number of Band 7 clinical psychology staff employed in the National Health Service in England each year from September 2010 to September 2015. The figures are taken from the NHS hospital and community health services monthly workforce statistics, which are published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 14919, what decisions have been made on how to spend the remaining funds that was allocated for perinatal mental health for 2015-16; and whether NHS England plans to spend the full £15 million allocation by the end of 2015-16.

Alistair Burt

The Budget in March 2015 and the Spending Review in November 2015 both recognised perinatal mental health services as a priority area for additional investment.

On 11 January the Government set out an additional £290 million which will be made available over the next five years to 2020/21 to invest in perinatal mental health services. This builds on the initial investment announced at the Spring Budget, making a total investment from 2016/17 to 2020/21 of £350 million. This new funding, together with the recommendations of the forthcoming report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, will enable NHS England to design a broader transformation programme to build capacity and capability in specialist perinatal mental health services, with the aim of enabling women in all areas of England to access NICE-concordant care by 2020/21.

In the context of this planned broader programme, NHS England anticipates spending up to £5 million of the original 2015/16 funding of £15 million in this financial year, to lay the foundations for this longer-term work through targeted funding of activities to build capacity in specialist services. This will include, for example, a £1 million investment in strengthening clinical networks across the country. It is also expected to include providing national and regional benchmarking data and analytical support to regions, and developing clinical leadership capacity. Additional work will support both the development of specialist Mother and Baby Units in those regions identified as most in need of new services, and training and developing the perinatal workforce to build skills and capabilities within specialist teams.

NHS England will work with partners over the coming months to develop the new programme for improving specialist perinatal mental health services. This will include setting detailed plans for how the additional investment will be targeted over the period to 2020/21.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 20082, what the (a) dates, (b) locations and (c) organisations of the 19 visits and meetings referred to in that Answer were.

Alistair Burt

Details of the 19 visits to or meetings with mental health trusts undertaken by Simon Stevens and Sir Bruce Keogh since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively are given on the attached table Details of meetings with and visits to mental health trusts undertaken by Simon Stevens and Sir Bruce Keogh since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively of NHS England.