Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have received young carer assessments under the Children and Families Act 2014 since its implementation; and what proportion of young carers received services from the local authority to meet their needs following such an assessment.

Edward Timpson

This information is not available to the Department.

From April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support by the local authority. These new provisions work alongside those in the Care Act 2014 for assessing adults to enable ‘whole family approaches’ to assessment and support. This means that when a child is identified as a young carer, the needs of everyone in the family will be considered. This will cause both children’s and adults’ support services to assess why a child has a caring responsibility, what needs to change, and what would help the family to prevent children from taking on this responsibility in the first place.

This reform is intended to ensure effective, joined-up support with the potential to offer a single point of professional contact for young carers and their families.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20190, if he will make it his policy to collect centrally the number of (a) young carers accessing Children and Adolescene Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) children provided with young carers assessments following contact with CAMHS.

Alistair Burt

This Government has no plans to collect this data centrally. The Government’s focus remains on promoting and supporting proper and effective multi-agency working and whole family approaches to assessment and support.

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 to improve access and make services more widely available across the country so that, where possible, children can access high-quality support locally including vulnerable children which includes young carers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children of parents with mental illnesses there are in (a) pre-primary, (b) primary and (c) secondary schools in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Department does not collect information on the number of children at any stage of school whose parents are suffering from mental illness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister’s speech of 11 January 2016, on life chances, what the sources of the £60 million of social investment for drug and alcohol treatment are expected to be.

Mr Rob Wilson

The Government has actively supported the growth of the social investment market over the last five years. This includes through the establishment of Big Society Capital which is investing up to £600m in growing the social investment market, and the Social Investment Tax Relief which is incentivising individual investors to make social investments. Other social investors investing in social impact bonds include charitable trusts and foundations as well as institutional investors and dedicated social impact funds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will engage with the #itaffectsme campaign on raising awareness of mental health issues.

Alistair Burt

The Government is working to reduce stigma around mental health, and supports all campaigns, including #itaffectsme, in this area.Any campaign, such as #itaffectsme, which raises awareness in mental health issues, is welcomed. In a speech announcing almost a billion pounds in investment into mental health services on 11 January, the Prime Minister recognised the need to take away the stigma behind mental illness. He said that, ‘as a country, we need to be far more mature about this. Less hushed tones, less whispering; more frank and open discussion. We need to take away that shame, that embarrassment, let people know that they’re not in this alone’.

We continue to provide financial support to the Time to Change programme which works to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and to encourage people to talk about mental health issues and seek help when needed. We are working with the programme and funders to develop the next stage of the programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme recovery rate reaches 50 per cent by March 2016.

Alistair Burt

NHS England (NHSE) monitors clinical commissioning groups’ (CCGs) performance against the recovery target for people who have received psychological therapies through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme. In October 2015, 77 CCGs met the 50% Recovery Standard.

The Department is working closely with NHSE to reduce the variation in recovery rates across CCG areas.

NHSE is also supporting lowest performing IAPT providers to improve their recovery rates and is offering workshops to spread good practice to all commissioners and providers.

The Government is aware of evidence that shows that people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities are less likely to use psychological therapies. There is ongoing activity by NHSE in collaboration with the Department to encourage access to IAPT services by the under-represented groups.

A BAME benchmarking tool has been developed and is currently being piloted by a number of IAPT services. This will assist services to improve access to people from BAME communities by helping those services understand the ethnicity of the population and whether this is reflected within the population they see. It asks services to assess whether outcomes for BAME communities are equivalent to non-BAME patients whilst also checking whether improvements for access to people from BAME communities have been made and specific training for therapists have been utilised. Once pilots are complete NHS England will publish the benchmarking tool for all services to access.

Equality of access is an issue for wider mental health services and that is why the Mental Health Partnership Board is considering the issues around equality of access in mental health services, which includes the IAPT programme.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre publish referrals and outcomes data by ethnic groups. NHSE intends to compare those numbers with BAME prevalence population data to highlight referrals and access rates for ethnic groups at CCG level. CCGs are responsible for taking the necessary actions to address any disparity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what account his Department has requested be taken of children who have specific needs arising from dual diagnosis of physical and mental health conditions in the thematic analysis of the local transformation plans commissioned by his Department.

Alistair Burt

NHS England has commissioned a number of thematic reviews as part of the analysis of the Local Transformation Plans. The aim is to understand how local areas are approaching the transformation process and where possible identify interesting local approaches that could inform future service planning and design to address the needs of all of the local population including those with dual diagnosis of physical and mental health.

One of these thematic reviews focuses on the needs of vulnerable groups of children and young people, such as looked after children, care leavers and those in contact with the justice system. This could also include children and young people with complex needs such as those with long term physical health issues if local areas have identified this group as a priority for action.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to bring forward proposals to change the closest living relative definition in the Mental Health Act 1983 to include unmarried fathers once their children are aged 18.

Alistair Burt

One of the aims set out in the Green Paper, No voice unheard, no right ignored – a consultation for people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health conditions, published in March 2015, is to ensure people’s ‘nearest relative’ under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) is someone who is meaningful to them. We have no plans to specifically change the nearest relative definition in the MHA to include unmarried fathers once their children are aged over 18 years.

This will ensure that people are able to choose their own ‘nearest relative’, who has specific legal responsibilities under the MHA. The current MHA definition of the nearest relative will be updated to be used as a default if necessary, when the person is unable to make a choice for some reason.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account the police takes of mental health conditions when deciding whether to prosecute people under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Mike Penning

The police and Crown Prosecution Service work together to take decisions on whether to pursue a prosecution under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, applying the evidential and public interest tests set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The Code provides that prosecutors should have regard to whether the suspect is, or was at the time of the offence, suffering from any mental or ill health as, in some circumstances, this may mean that it is less likely that a prosecution is required.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of Public Health England’s social marketing budget for 2015-16 has been allocated to mental health.

Jane Ellison

Mental health and wellbeing is integrated into many Public Health England campaigns.

In 2015-16 an estimated £380,000 has been allocated to the development and promotion of mental health content for 11-16 year olds via the Rise Above campaign.

In addition, the Information Service for Parents (ISP) programme delivers information on mental and physical health topics to support parents and parents-to-be. There are a wide range of topics relating to mental health covered including ante-natal and post-natal depression, and the importance of seeking professional help to address mental health issues in both parents and young children. The annual cost of delivering the ISP is £250,000, but we cannot ascribe a precise value to mental health given the breadth of issues it covers.