Tag: Luciana Berger

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 38058, if he will make it his policy to collect centrally information on the costs incurred by the NHS for legal advice and representation at inquests by cause of death.

Ben Gummer

The amount spent on legal advice and representation is entirely a matter for local National Health Service organisations. There are no plans to introduce a central information collection for this information as the Department continues to work to reduce the burden of centralised data collection on the NHS.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what information her Department holds on gender pay gaps by sector in the Liverpool City Region.

Caroline Dinenage

Gender pay gaps are calculated by comparing the median male hourly wages (excluding overtime) with the median female hourly wages, as a proportion of the male wage.

The department does not hold this data by city regions or by sector for city regions.

The following link to Table 5 of the Office of National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for 2015 provides the average hourly wages for males and females on a regional industry basis: http://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/regionbyindustry2digitsicashetable5

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure the efficient and timely transfer of prisoners to hospitals under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983; and how many prisoners have waited for more than 14 days for such a transfer in each quarter since April 2015.

Nicola Blackwood

Department of Health guidance was published in 2011 on best practice to achieve urgent transfers within 14 days. NHS England continues to work with prison healthcare and secure mental health providers to improve processes so that this can be achieved.

NHS England has provided information on transfers as detailed below.

Period	Transfers	Transfers >14 days
Quarter 1 Financial Year (FY) 2015-16	72	232
Quarter 2 FY 2015-16	136	238
Quarter 3 FY 2015-16	92	213
Quarter 4 FY 2015-16	112	458
Quarter 1 FY 2016-17	92	209

Note: the numbers above are reported transfers in the time period, an individual prisoner may be represented in more than one time period

Data for this indicator has improved since data collection began in April 2015. NHS England have since improved the data collection and quality under the Health and Justice Indicators of Performance and the information above now represents data from all prisons.

NHS England intends to publish data collected through Health and Justice Indicators of Performance since April 2016 in future, but a firm date for publication is not yet available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that ending the NHS bursaries for nurses does not deter people from training to be a mental health nurse.

Mr Philip Dunne

We expect this reform to enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional training places to study pre-registration nursing, midwifery and the allied health subjects including mental health nursing.

In order to meet National Health Service workforce supply requirements, Health Education England will retain responsibility for workforce planning to ensure that the right number of trained staff are available for the NHS.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what funding his Department allocates to supporting people with mental health issues who are employed in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Nicola Blackwood

We are committed to supporting people with mental health problems to stay in work and the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions established a joint Work and Health Unit to look at these matters.

Improving access to mental health services for those who need them is important and we are increasing access to talking therapy services so that 1.5 million people per year will be able to access support by 2020.

We will shortly be publishing a Green Paper on work and health, which will include a focus on mental health as we know that people with mental health conditions fare poorly in the labour market. Our aim is to help transform the lives and prospects of disabled people and those with a health condition.

We know that the stigma surrounding mental health can create barriers to people seeking and receiving support. We have recently announced £20 million of additional funding to the national Time to Change anti-stigma programme, in conjunction with Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund, which works with employers to support them in tackling the stigma in the workplace associated with poor mental health. This next phase of Time to Change places a particular focus on stigma experienced by men.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with the Department of Health on the rate of people taking their own lives in prisons.

Andrew Selous

Every death in custody is a tragedy, and we are committed to reducing the rate of self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

My department works closely with the Department of Health on measures to reduce suicide in prisons and in the wider community. Both the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Quality and I are members of the Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody, which also includes the Minister for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice and Victims, senior officials from our respective departments and a range of stakeholders. There was a detailed discussion of the recent data on self-inflicted deaths in prisons at the most recent meeting of the Board on 21 October and further consideration of this topic is planned at the February meeting.

Healthcare staff in prisons play an important role in the identification and management of prisoners at risk of self-harm and suicide. Commissioners and providers of healthcare services are active partners with the National Offender Management Service in its work to prevent self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of whether there has been an increase in the use of mental health services by chemsex drug users in the last 12 months.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England is due to publish a briefing for commissioners and providers of drug and alcohol services highlighting issues for men who have sexual contact with other men (MSM) and chemsex. The briefing contains background information, recent data and survey findings, and prompts for local areas and drug services – including liaison and referral for sexual, mental and physical health problems. Information is also collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre on contacts with drug and alcohol support teams, however data is not broken down by drug type or by behaviours associated with drug use.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions on the effect of sanctions on the mental health of people who have been so sanctioned.

Alistair Burt

Ministers in the Department of Health and Department of Work and Pensions have not had any recent discussions about the effect of sanctions on the mental health of people who have been so sanctioned.

However, Ministers have many discussions with stakeholders about a range of issues, and the Secretary of State for Health and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions met on 3 June and agreed to greater cross government working between their respective Departments. Following that meeting, the Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions Work and Health Unit was created to improve the health and employment outcomes of benefit claimants.

We know that people come into contact with the welfare system at a time when they may be vulnerable because of unemployment and its associated consequences. The Department for Work and Pensions provides guidance and training for staff to help them identify and support people who may be vulnerable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 12 September 2014 to Question 208785, how much of the £17 million budget for the NHS England Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Transformation programme for 2014-15 was spent; and on what that funding was spent.

Alistair Burt

The full £17 million has been spent on the NHS England and Health Education England Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) Transformation programme for 2014-15.

The funds were spent on delivering the programme to 65 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) partnerships of National Health Service and local authority commissioners working with statutory and non-statutory providers covering 68% of the 0-19 population in England. The model of delivery for the programme is through five Learning Collaboratives made up of Higher Education Institutes and the relevant CAMHS partnerships.

The collaboratives deliver training, peer mentoring for new partnerships and have a support and challenge role to enable services to deliver a choice of evidence based outcomes focussed interventions in collaboration with children, young people and their families.

Partnerships also receive funds to backfill staff whilst training, outreach service development and infrastructure improvement.

In addition, the programme funded participation by children, young people and parents at a national and local level and data capture to inform service planning.

The direct training delivered includes:

– Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression;

– Parenting Therapy for the treatment of conduct disorders in those aged 0-10;

– Interpersonal Therapy for Adolescents for the treatment of moderate to severe depression;

– Systemic Family Practice for the treatment of conduct disorders in the over 10s, self-harm and depression, and eating disorders;

– Enhanced Evidence Based Practice which teaches practitioners the basic principles of CYP IAPT;

– All therapy courses have a course for training supervisors; and

– Service leadership and management.

The table below outlines the numbers of trainees that were recruited in the 14-15 academic year.

Training Numbers from 14-15

Course	Number of trainees
Therapy training	262
Supervisor training	87
Practitioner training	178
Service leaders	59

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to support Clinical Commissioning Groups to commission effective mental health services for children under 18 who have experienced abuse.

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.

As a first step in delivering this transformation and in line with guidance published by NHS England in August, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have produced Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health with their local partners as proposed in Future in mind. These include plans which set out how CCGs will ensure that the needs of vulnerable groups, including children who have been abused, are met. LTPs covering all local areas have been submitted and are now being assured by NHS England’s regional teams.

Strategic Clinical Networks provide clinical advice and leadership to support decision making and strategic planning at a local level. The networks were established to bring together those who use, provide and commission the service to make improvements in outcomes for complex patient pathways using an integrated, whole system approach such as for children who have been abused. The networks work in partnership with commissioners (including local government), supporting their decision making and strategic planning, by working across the boundaries of commissioner, provider and voluntary organisations as a vehicle for improvement.

NHS England is scoping a further programme of commissioning support to build on what is already being delivered locally.