Tag: Luciana Berger

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2015 to Question 18011, when he plans to announce the successful bids for the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme.

Jane Ellison

The results of the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme bidding process were announced on 22 December 2015. Bids worth £42.1 million were awarded for 14 projects in London and 60 in the rest of England. The programme runs for two years – from 2015-16 to 2016-17.

A list of the successful bids is attached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 11 January 2016, how much of the proposed £1.4 billion mental health support funding for young people over the next five years has already been allocated.

Alistair Burt

The Government has committed to making available the full £1.4 billion over the course of this Parliament to improve children and young people’s mental health.

In this financial year (2015/16), the Government has already allocated £173 million. This includes:

– £75 million for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to improve local services;

– £30 million to CCGs to develop evidence based community eating disorder services for children and young people;

– £28 million to fund the expansion of the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme;

– £15 million for improvements to perinatal mental health care; and

– £25 million for investment in inpatient services for children and young people, to build workforce capability, and to support innovation and development of online support.

A targeted and phased approach to the additional investment over future years will enable local areas to develop additional capacity and a collaborative approach across health, education and children’s services so that the money can be spent effectively. This is what is needed to make a real difference. The Government remains committed to spend the whole £1.4 billion over the course of this Parliament to improve children and young people’s mental health.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Oral Answer to the hon. Member for Litchfield of 14 January 2016, how the media-smart literacy resources regarding body image are distributed to parents.

Caroline Dinenage

The Media Smart media literacy resource is owned by Media Smart, which is an arm of the Advertising Association. The resource is currently being updated and will be available on their website in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2016 to Question 22945, what steps he plans to take to tackle the increase in the number of people under 18 who have been admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm since 2010.

Alistair Burt

The Government is committed to delivering the transformation of children and young people’s mental health as outlined in Future in Mind. Local Transformation Plans, which NHS England has now assured, and the £30 million that was released in December 2015 for clinical commissioning groups to deliver their improved local offer, which must cover the whole spectrum of services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, including prevention, early intervention and access as well as support for those who self-harm.

In the Autumn Statement 2014 increased funding of £150 million over the course of this Parliament was announced to improve eating disorder services for children and young people with mental health problems in England, and any capacity freed up through this investment is to be redeployed to improve services for both crisis and people who self-harm.

In relation to the increase of young people who have been admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm it is important to note that revised guidance was issued by the Health and Social Care Information Centre to National Health Service trusts to clarify the use of reporting codes from 1 April 2013, which may account for some of the increase in figures from that point onwards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2016 to Question 23621, which (a) charitable trusts and foundations, (b) institutional investors and (c) dedicated social impact funds have invested in drug and alcohol addiction.

Mr Rob Wilson

There are a broad range of charitable trusts and foundations working in this area, including Action Against Addiction, Mind and the Lifeline Project. Institutional investors such as Big Society Capital and Bridges Ventures have a track record of investing in programmes focused upon tackling complex social problems of this type. We will be working closely with all of these stakeholders to ensure that the Life Chances Fund has a real impact in helping to tackle drug and alcohol addiction.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24674, what steps he is taking to ensure that trained specialist mental health staff are available to support mothers in every birthing unit by 2017; if he will provide an interim progress report on that work; and how he plans to assess whether that objective has been achieved by 2017.

Alistair Burt

Health Education England (HEE) has a mandate commitment to ensure that trained specialist mental health staff are available to support mothers in every birthing unit by 2017.

Formal arrangements are in place between the Department and HEE to review performance on a regular basis. These include reports on progress against mandate commitments and quarterly accountability meetings between the Department’s senior officials and the HEE chief executive and executive directors.

The HEE Perinatal Mental Health programme aims to ensure that the maternity workforce has access to the right, skills and knowledge that will enable them to provide high quality perinatal mental health care from prevention through to treatment for women throughout pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. This includes partnership working with stakeholders, including the Royal College of Midwives to meet the multi professional education and training requirements.

At local level, it is for employers to ensure that staff have received appropriate perinatal mental health training to enable them to deliver high quality care and support to mothers during pregnancy and the first year after birth.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his speech to the Local Government Association annual conference in July 2015, what progress has been made on the development and publication of unified health and social care metrics.

Alistair Burt

Officials at the Department of Health have been working with the Department for Communities and Local Government, NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Service to develop a set of metrics that can be used to monitor local progress towards the integration of health and social care. A draft set of metrics will be trialled during 2016/17, so that central government, national bodies and local system-level partners can together review and refine them before agreeing a final set of integration metrics at the end of the trial year.

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 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether any national guidance has been issued relating to the use of opt in letters sent by health trusts to patients on mental health service waiting lists.

Alistair Burt

Guidance on the use of opt-in letters for patients who are asked to opt-in to adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services is published in “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Waiting Times Guidance and FAQ’s”. This guidance can be found at the following link:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/iapt-wait-times-guid.pdf

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