Tag: Luciana Berger

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2015 to Question 14466, if he will publish the minutes of the 21 October 2015 meeting of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody.

Andrew Selous

The next meeting of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody, which I will chair, will take place on 1 March 2016. The minutes of the Board held on 21 October 2015 will be agreed by members at that meeting and then published.

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of provisions in place to provide psychological treatments for victims of FGM.

Jane Ellison

As part of its £3 million Female Genital Mutilation Prevention Programme, the Department is actively looking at the provision of mental health and wellbeing services for FGM survivors.

A ministerial roundtable with senior stakeholders was held on 29 October 2015 to discuss this issue. The Department is working with specialist mental health professionals and professional bodies to evidence the needs of FGM survivors, and will consider how best to support commissioners to ensure FGM survivors can access existing mental health services that are able to meet their individual needs.

The Department has also commissioned specialist FGM mental health e-learning and we are also updating existing mental health training materials to support awareness and recognition by health professionals of how FGM may impact mental health.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of provision of mental health services for children who have been abused.

Alistair Burt

This Government is committed to delivering the vision set out in Future in mind and is driving forward the transformation of children and young people’s mental health services.

This transformation programme, backed by additional investment of £1.4 billion allocated over the next five years, will deliver a step change in the way children and young people’s mental health services are commissioned and delivered.

All clinical commissioning groups, working closely with their partners, were asked to develop and submit Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) to transform their local offer for children and young people’s mental health. Plans must cover the whole spectrum of services from prevention to intervention for emerging or existing mental health problems and address the full spectrum of need, including children who have been abused and/or exploited. LTPs should also demonstrate that services have been designed with children and young people and their families, and meet the needs of their local population of children.

LTPs, covering all local areas, were submitted in October 2015 and are currently being assured by NHS England’s regional teams.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November to Question 17518, what steps he plans to take to increase the course completion rate for people who are referred to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.

Alistair Burt

We are working closely with NHS England on all issues related to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, which includes reducing dropout rates. The Department is currently in conversation with NHS England to determine the causes of dropouts.

The table in answer to Question 17518 includes all referrals who did not finish a course of treatment, this would include those that drop out but also includes those who do not complete treatment for other reasons including those who were not suitable for IAPT treatment, those who are moved or referred elsewhere and those that declined the offer of treatment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to collect information centrally on how many local authorities have suicide prevention groups.

Alistair Burt

Data is currently not collected centrally on how many local authorities have in place local suicide prevention strategies and multi-agency prevention groups.

I will be meeting soon with Departmental officials and our delivery partner organisations on suicide prevention to explore ways in which we can work together to progress the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, including improving local delivery of the Strategy, and the collection of information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to compare the transformation plans of clinical commissioning groups when appraising those plans.

Alistair Burt

As part of improving transparency, all Local Transformation Plans must be published locally and made widely available.

NHS England’s guidance Local Transformation Plans for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing – Guidance and support for local areas is explicit about the need to promote equality and address health inequalities, and states that plans should ‘address the full spectrum of need including children and young people who have particular vulnerability to mental health problems for e.g. those with learning disabilities, looked after children and care leavers, those at risk or in contact with the Youth Justice System, or who have been sexually abused and/or exploited’.

The assurance process requires local areas to evidence how they are meeting the needs of vulnerable groups including looked after children and children who have experienced abuse.

An analysis of Local Transformation Plans has been commissioned and will include a thematic review of how the mental health needs of children and young people in vulnerable groups have been addressed.

As set out in the guidance for Local Transformation Plans an integral part of the locally developed Children and Young People’s Mental Health Transformation Plans includes a tracking template that sets out local progress milestones and financial spend. This tracker will be used as the basis for assurance assessment in 2015/16 and from 2016/17 onwards progress on local transformation will become part of the mainstream planning assurance process.

Local Transformation Plansrequire all key partners in a local area to agree how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations. 122 Local Transformation Planshave been developed that cover all 209 clinical commissioning groups.

The assurance process for Local Transformation Plans for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing was undertaken by NHS England regional teams and included assurance against each plan of standard self-assessment and tracker templates to enable a comparison of plans against objective success criteria.

NHS England have commissioned a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Local Transformation Plans, in order to support policy makers, local commissioners and services to understand and use the data that is contained within the plans to drive further improvements. Local Transformation Plans will be reviewed from a narrative, analytical and financial perspective, with thematic reviews carried out in key focus areas that align with Future in mind principles.