Tag: Luciana Berger

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 3 on page 5 of the Five Year Forward View Mental Health Task Force report, published on 15 February 2016, if he will make it his policy to provide equal funding for mental health services.

Alistair Burt

We are committed to achieving parity of esteem between mental health and physical health. The Mental Health Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21. By the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality.

This builds on the £1.4 billion over this Parliament that has been previously announced for transforming children and young people’s mental health and improving support for eating disorders.

All of the Taskforce report recommendations are funded from within the overall envelope agreed in the Spending Review. All of the £1 billion announced with the Taskforce report represents additional investment over and above what was allocated to the NHS in 2015/16.

We are already spending more money on mental health than ever before – an estimated £11.7 billion last year. This shows our commitment to achieving an equal status between mental and physical health services. We have been clear that commissioners must continue to increase investment in mental health services each year at a level which at least matches their overall expenditure increase.

We will monitor this closely to ensure this happens and know that clinical commissioning group spend is on track to increase as expected.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve transparency of (a) spending and (b) outcomes in the NHS on mental health.

Alistair Burt

The report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce acknowledged the need for increased transparency on mental health spending and the quality of care that people receive.

We are moving forward the data and transparency agenda and a new dataset for mental health will be published by April this year.

NHS England has already set a principal commitment to achieving mental health parity of esteem. Through its assurance process NHS England will hold individual commissioners to account for increasing spend on mental health in line with their increase in allocations, taking account of the mental health funding that has been received.

We have welcomed the Taskforce’s recommendations for government in the report and will be considering how best to integrate them into our current work programme, as well as new policies as they develop.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to implement the six priorities of the Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe.

Ben Gummer

In their report, published on 15 February, the Mental Health Taskforce recommended that the United Kingdom should aspire to be a world leader in the development and application of new mental health research. The Taskforce also recommended that mental health research should follow the Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe, published in September 2015.

The Taskforce asked specifically that the Department, working with relevant partners, should publish a report by February 2017 setting out a 10 year strategy for mental health research. Departmental officials have already met with the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the mental health research charity MQ, and other charities to re-establish arrangements for a more determined approach to co-ordination of mental health research. The next meeting is planned to take place in early April, and developing the 10-year strategy will be a key item on the agenda.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of changes to training funding on the numbers of child psychotherapists training and qualifying as part of the NHS workforce.

Ben Gummer

In the November 2015 Spending Review, the Government announced changes to how healthcare student places will be funded. The policy intention of the reforms is to change the funding system for pre-registration undergraduate and postgraduate courses in nursing, midwifery and allied health subjects. From 1 August 2017, these courses will be funded through the standard student loans system; and will not receive Health Education England funding for tuition and students or an National Heaslth Service bursary. The changes will apply to new students only.

Child Psychotherapists courses are not included in the policy intention for these reforms as they do not attract funding through the NHS Bursary Scheme.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to develop a long-term workforce strategy for learning disabilities.

Ben Gummer

Health Education England (HEE) was established to deliver a better healthcare workforce for England and using all available data is accountable for ensuring that we have a National Health Service workforce in the right numbers, with the right skills, values and behaviours to respond to the current and future needs of patients.

HEE has been working with Skills for Care, Skills for Health and national transforming care partners to deliver a comprehensive workforce strategy to transform services for people with a learning disability, autism and/or behaviour that challenges to make a significant and lasting improvement to their care and lives.

HEE has developed and made available a number of enabling tools and resources that can be utilised throughout Transforming Care Partnership including:

– a Learning Disability Skills and Competency Framework which adopts a competency based approach to workforce planning and development;

– a series of role templates to support the development of community and enhanced community teams; and

– HEE Learning Disability Expert Reference Group Chaired by Baroness Hollins is exploring the career framework opportunities within health and social care for the development of new roles and education and training pathway.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who have not (a) attended a work capability assessment or (b) reported to a jobcentre when requested have been exempt from benefit sanctions because of extenuating circumstances relating to their mental health in each year since 2010.

Priti Patel

The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will estimate how many and what proportion of all women with mental health issues in the UK have been internally or internationally trafficked.

Mike Penning

The Home Office do not hold data that allows us to establish how many women with mental health issues in the UK have been trafficked.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many intersex people have been referred for or requested mental health support in England in each year since 2010; and how many clinical commissioning groups commission specialised mental health support for intersex (a) children and (b) adults.

Alistair Burt

This information is not collected centrally.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre does not hold the data to answer this question as the identification of intersex people is not possible within the Mental Health Services Data Set.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of reports of Care Quality Commission inspections of mental health trusts have been produced within the Care Quality Commission’s 50-day target in each year since 2010.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England and has provided the following information.

The 50 day key performance indicator target for publishing inspection reports was introduced by the CQC in 2014, when its new approach to inspections was introduced.

Number of mental health trust reports published within 50 days since the introduction of the CQC’s new approach to inspections in January 2014.

	2014	2015	2016
Reports published	12	26	15
Within 50 days	6	2	2
50 day percentage	50%	8%	13%
Within 65 days	9	9	5
65 day percentage	75%	35%	33%

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in (a) primary and (b) secondary non-specialist schools have autism spectrum disorder; how schools are required to identify those children; and what support her Department gives to those children.

Edward Timpson

In January 2015, there were 35,030 children in mainstream primary schools and 30,845 children in mainstream secondary schools who were identified as having autistic spectrum disorder as their primary type of need[1].

Under the SEND Code of Practice all maintained schools are required to identify the special educational needs of pupils, including those with autism. Where any pupil makes less progress than expected, schools should assess the pupil’s needs, put in place suitable support to meet those needs and review it regularly to ensure it continues to be appropriate. If, despite additional support provided by the school, a pupil continues to make less progress than expected, the school (or the parents) can ask the local authority to carry out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment of the pupil’s needs. If the local authority decides to issue an EHC plan, it will specify the provision needed to support the pupil’s needs and what additional resources will be funded by the local authority.

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced significant reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) system which will better support children and young people with autism in the education system. This includes the publication of ‘local offers’ of SEND services by local authorities, the introduction of streamlined EHC plans, and new statutory protections for young people aged 16-25 in further education.

The Act also makes provision to ensure that parents, children and young people are able to access impartial information, advice and support about the SEND system. This is available through a local, dedicated and easily identifiable service which includes help to prepare them for meetings with schools, health professionals or other agencies that may be supporting them in their education.

Under the Department’s Free Schools programme, there are now nineteen special free schools open across the country, including several that are specifically for children with Autism, such as the Rise free school in Hounslow, the Lighthouse free school in Leeds and the National Autistic Society’s Church Lawton free school in Cheshire. There are a further eleven special free schools due to open in the future, five of which will specialise in provision for children with autism, including the Heartlands Autism free school in Haringey and a second National Autistic Society free school, the Vanguard free school in Lambeth. The other six will offer some places for children with autism.

[1] National Statistics: Special Educational Needs in England 2015, Table 8, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015).

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