Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has received representations on requests by schools to parents and carers that children with autism spectrum disorder not attend school during Ofsted inspections in the last five years.

Edward Timpson

The Department is aware of a small number of cases in the last few years where parents and carers have complained about a school either asking a child with autism to stay at home on Ofsted inspection days, or diverting the child to other non-academic activities on those days.

Whenever such complaints have been received, we have been absolutely clear that any request for a child to stay at home during an Ofsted inspection would be an unlawful exclusion and that parents and carers should make a formal complaint to the school’s board of governors. Taking a child out of normal timetabled lessons during an inspection is unacceptable and should be drawn to the attention of the school’s board of governors.

Parents can also ask the Secretary of State to make a determination under Sections 496 and 497 of the Education Act 1996, which give her the power to direct a governing body where it has failed to discharge a statutory duty or has done so unreasonably. Any such direction would have to be expedient, in that there must be something the Secretary of State could direct the school to do which would put matters right.

Depending on the circumstances, parents and carers could also bring a claim of disability discrimination to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).

Ofsted’s school inspection framework requires inspectors to take account of schools’ use of exclusion. The Department would also pass to Ofsted any relevant evidence that falls within the inspectorate’s remit. If, during the course of an Ofsted inspection, inspectors become aware that a school has unlawfully excluded pupils for the period of the inspection, this will be taken into account in judging the effectiveness of the school and its leadership. If the evidence emerges after the inspection, the matter will be investigated by Ofsted and could lead to the school receiving an unannounced inspection visit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure NHS England is working with (a) clinical commissioning groups, (b) local authorities and (c) other partners to develop and trial a new model of acute in-patient care for young adults aged 16 to 25.

Alistair Burt

Trialling acute inpatient care models for 16-25 year olds was a specific recommendation from Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (FYFV for Mental Health), a report from the independent Mental Health Taskforce to the NHS in England, published in February 2016. NHS England has accepted in full the recommendations of the Taskforce and is considering how to take each of the recommendations forward.

The FYFV for Mental Health states:

“NHS England should work with CCGs, local authorities and other partners to develop and trial a new model of acute inpatient care for young adults aged 16–25 in 2016, working with Vanguard sites. This should evaluate: developmentally and age-appropriate inpatient services for this group; supporting young people in an environment that maximises opportunities for rehabilitation and return to education, training or employment; viewing the young person within their social context; and enlisting the support of families or carers. This should build on the existing trials of new models of ‘transitional’ services for those aged 0–25.”

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what representations his Department has made to the NHS England consultation on the future of mental health support for veterans of the armed forces.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence takes the mental health of our veterans very seriously. The Department has made no representations in response to the NHS England consultation on the future of mental health support for veterans of the Armed Forces. The consultation is aimed at veterans who have used NHS veterans’ mental health services, their family members and carers, and staff and organisations that are providing mental health care, treatment and support for veterans and their families.

https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/veterans-mental-health-services

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the foreword of the NHS Mental Health Taskforce report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016, what steps he is taking to ensure that tackling poverty and inequalities are a core part of his Department’s mental health strategy.

Alistair Burt

We welcome the publication of the independent Mental Health Taskforce report and we will work with NHS England and other health bodies to embed the recommendations into our work programmes. We recognise the inequalities that may be experienced by people from lower socio-economic groups both in terms of exposure to risk factors for poor mental health and accessing mental health services and their experiences of mental health services when they do access care.

We will be working with stakeholders to ensure we are addressing inequalities issues including those identified in the Mental Health Taskforce report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many designated health places of safety for under-18s there are in each clinical commissioning group.

Alistair Burt

The Department does not hold information on how many designated health places of safety for under-18s there are in each clinical commissioning group.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has produced a map of the location of designated health-based places of safety in England for people detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act. The CQC has also published a table that breaks this information down by local authority. This information can be found at the following CQC website:

http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/map-health-based-places-safety-0#howto

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the availability of sufficient long-term funding for the delivery of the commitments in NHS England’s Transforming Care programme.

Alistair Burt

In the national service model and Building the right support published in October 2015 NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services set out how areas would be supported to deliver lasting change to people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges.

To develop community capacity, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local authorities and NHS England’s specialised commissioners have formed 48 transforming care partnerships (TCPs) to plan for the future. TCPs have been asked to use the total sum of money they spend as a whole system on people with a learning disability and/or autism to deliver care in a different way to achieve better results. This includes shifting money from some services (such as inpatient care) into others (such as community health services including mental health services or individual packages of support). The costs of the future model of care will therefore be met from the total current envelope of spend on health and social care services for people with a learning disability and/or autism.

During a phase of transition, commissioners will need to invest in new community support before closing inpatient provision. To support them to do this NHS England will make available up to £30 million of transformation funding over three years, to be matched by CCGs, and £15 million in capital funding. This funding is in addition to the £10 million made available to six fast track areas in 2015/16.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to point three on page six of Public mental health leadership and workforce development framework: executive summary, published in March 2015, what specific action Public Health England has taken to inform the review of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England has used its Public Mental Health Leadership and Workforce Development Framework to inform its review of the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework. This has involved consideration of public mental health competencies, combined with further feedback from stakeholders through a consultation process with input from local authorities and partner organisations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to implement recommendation 12 in the executive summary of Public Health England’s March 2015 report entitled, Public mental health leadership and workforce development framework, on supporting increased access to a range of mental health promotion training for frontline public health practitioners.

Alistair Burt

Public Health England (PHE) has been collating practice examples of mental health promotion training available for frontline public health practitioners. Information will help inform the commissioning of training locally. PHE is working with the Royal Society for Public Health and other partners to identify gaps in mental health promotion training provision and opportunities to fill these gaps, such as developing e-learning training modules.

At a local level, PHE centres are working with Health Education England (HEE) colleagues to identify and co-ordinate provision of training to practitioners and identify needs and training opportunities.

PHE contributed to the Mental Health Task Force report and has integrated the priority of increasing the training within the Taskforce’s recommendations. Work will be led by HEE, supported by PHE.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the number of businesses which have a mental health workplace policy.

Alistair Burt

The information is not collected centrally.

Public Health England endorses the Workplace Wellbeing Charter National Award for England which is a scheme that recognises the commitment of organisations to promoting wellbeing in the workplace. Over 1,000 organisations in England hold the award.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with the Care Quality Commission on the findings of its mock inspection of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Slade House site in 2012.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not conduct mock-inspections. The CQC compliance report on Slade House, published in 2012, was conducted under its previous inspection methodology. The inspection found that the facility was meeting the essential standards of care it looked at. The Department did not discuss the report’s findings with the CQC.

From 2014, the CQC started introducing a new inspection methodology to mental health services which makes use of a higher-skilled inspection team that includes specialist inspectors, clinical and other experts, and people with experience of care. The findings of these new inspections give patients and the public a more authoritative and comprehensive view of the quality of care provided by health and adult social care providers.