Tag: Luciana Berger

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons he has not yet announced funding for the Time to Change campaigns beyond March 2016.

Alistair Burt

We have provided £3.2 million in funding in 2015/16 to the Time to Change programme to support the excellent work the programme does in reducing the stigma associated with mental illness.

The Time to Change programme received £16 million in funding from Government between 2011/12 and 2014/15.

Officials are in discussions with Time to Change, and its other funding partners, about the next phase of the programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what reports NHS England has produced on progress in achieving parity of esteem for mental health.

Alistair Burt

NHS England and the Department jointly published Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020 in October 2014. This publication recognised that a key element of achieving parity across mental and physical health care depends on enabling people to have timely access to evidence-based and effective care, and set out a clear vision for the development of access and waiting time standards in mental health including introduction of the first set of standards on early intervention in psychosis and psychological therapies, as well as signalling new investment in liaison mental health services in acute hospitals.

NHS England’s Five Year Forward View set out a clear commitment to a more equal response across mental and physical health and achieving genuine parity of esteem by 2020.

In support of this objective, NHS England’s latest planning guidance, Forward View into Action: planning for 2015-16, includes an expectation that clinical commissioning groups’ (CCG) spending on mental health services in 2015-16 should increase in real terms, and grow by at least as much as each CCG’s allocation increase to support the ambition of parity between mental and physical health.

NHS England has commissioned an independent Mental Health Task Force to produce a five-year mental health strategy, for improved access and outcomes in all settings, to be published in the New Year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many prescriptions for anti-depressants were dispensed by the NHS for patients aged under 18 in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

Information is not available centrally concerning the age of patients prescribed and dispensed specific medicines.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2015 to Question 19356, if he will make it his policy to collect information on the proportion of people identified as having experienced child abuse who are diagnosed with a mental health condition as a young person or adult.

Alistair Burt

The Government is fully committed to providing support for anyone who needs it, including those who have suffered child abuse, and aims to improve the data on prevalence of child sexual abuse so that commissioners are better able to ensure the most appropriate services are available. This includes improving available data on the prevalence of child abuse and related mental health issues, using the population-wide children and adolescent mental health survey, as well as a data collection specifically on the prevalence of child sexual abuse starting in certain targeted services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 11 January 2016 on parenting classes, (a) how many hours of such classes will be provided to parents and (b) whether there will be a cost to parents participating in such classes.

Priti Patel

The Department will be working through the details of what will be provided by the contracted relationship support provision in the next few months.