The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of in-patients in each of the last five years have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Alistair Burt
The proportion of in-patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last five years is detailed on the attached table Detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 as a proportion of people in hospital.
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 mental health beds are available on specific dates.
Alistair Burt
NHS England collects information on mental health beds available for children and young people on specific dates. Departmental officials are considering with NHS England whether further bed availability data can be collected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of clinical commissioning group transformation plans do not mention services for (a) children who have experienced abuse and (b) looked after children; and if he will make a statement.
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 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many psychiatric nurses were in post in each financial year since 2010-11.
Ben Gummer
Psychiatric nurses are not identified separately in the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s (HSCIC) workforce statistics. Area of Work, which is identified, is purely the area, function or specialty where the work activity takes place. The attached table shows the number of nurses within the psychiatry area of work from September 2010 to September 2015, the midpoint of the financial year. The data is sourced from the HSCIC’s monthly workforce statistics.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2016 to Question 21919, whether the £290 million announced for perinatal mental health, funded from the Department’s overall Spending Review Settlement, is in addition to the £600 million announced in the 2015 Autumn Statement.
Alistair Burt
The £290 million for perinatal mental health is part of the £600 million announced for mental health which in turn is part of the Department’s spending review settlement announced during the 2015 Autumn Statement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 21586, if he will make it his policy to collect figures on the number of psychiatric nurses in each region.
Ben Gummer
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) already make available workforce statistics for all Hospital and Community Health Services staff nationally and by Health Education England region in the annual National Health Service workforce census. This includes the number of nurses working in the area of community psychiatry and other psychiatry and these figures are available by region each month on request to the HSCIC.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2015 to Question 20074, on mental health services: children, whether it is planned that the thematic review will consider children who have been abused as a specific theme separate to children and young people more generally.
Alistair Burt
NHS England aims to finalise and publish its thematic review of how the mental health needs of children and young people in vulnerable groups have been addressed as part of the overall Local Transformation Plan analysis by 30 April 2016. A number of thematic reviews have been commissioned as part of the overall analysis of the Local Transformation Plans. One of these thematic reviews focuses on vulnerable groups of children and young people, which will include children who have been abused.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people (a) with mental health conditions, (b) with long-term disabilities and (c) who receive social care who will be affected by the planned cap on housing benefit for tenants in supported housing.
Alistair Burt
Ministers have not yet made any official representations to other Government departments about the proposed changes to housing benefit for tenants in supported housing. Neither has the Department made any formal estimates of the people likely to be affected by the proposed changes. However, discussions are ongoing at official level between Departments.
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 29 January 2016 to Question 24145, what support a hospital is expected to provide to people appointed as attorneys to make decisions about property and affairs of people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Alistair Burt
There are no specific guidelines as to what support hospitals should provide to an individual holding a Lasting Power of Attorney for another individual detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. However, when appointed as an attorney, individuals are registered by the Office of the Public Guardian who make them aware of their responsibilities to act in accordance with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). A range of support materials are available on operation of the MCA and hospitals should have an appointed MCA lead person who can help disseminate advice and best practice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of schools which have restricted the school trips which children with autism spectrum disorder can attend in each of the last five years.
Edward Timpson
The Department does not collect data on schools which have restricted the school trips that children with autism can attend.
Public sector bodies, including maintained schools, are covered by the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010. When carrying out their functions they must have regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and foster good relations between disabled and non-disabled children and young people. This duty is anticipatory, which means that schools must take into account the needs of disabled pupils, such as those with autism, when planning school trips and other events.
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 emphasises that school leaders should establish and maintain a culture of high expectations that expects those working with children and young people with SEN or disabilities to include them in all the opportunities available to other children and young people so that they can achieve well. This would include opportunities to socialise and attend external school trips.
If parents believe that a school has discriminated against their autistic child in planning school trips, they can make a claim for disability discrimination to the First-tier Tribunal.