Tag: Luciana Berger

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 22 October 2015 to the hon. Member for Bath to Question 11880, how much of the funding for the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme has been (a) spent on and (b) allocated to mental health support.

Alistair Burt

The bidding and assessment process for the Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programme is now complete. We are looking forward to making an announcement of the successful bids shortly. Mental health is a key issue for homeless people – often part of a range of multiple and complex conditions. The programme will help address these mental health issues by providing decent accommodation and health support for some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Specialist Training 4 psychiatry posts were filled in each year since 2010.

Ben Gummer

The information requested, which has been provided by Health Education England, can be found in the attached document. The Department does not hold data prior to 2011.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to report on the progress of the pilot being run in conjunction with the Department for Education to give schools access to a single point of contact for mental health.

Alistair Burt

The Department for Education and NHS England have commissioned Ecorys to undertake an independent evaluation of the Mental Health Services and School Link Pilots. The evaluation will run from October 2015 to November 2016, covering all 22 pilot sites with Ecorys formally reporting back to the Department for Education and NHS England towards the end of 2016.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to raise awareness of female genital mutilation among mental health professionals.

Jane Ellison

As part of its £3 million national Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Prevention Programme, the Department is developing staff training and awareness materials on FGM focusing on the mental health and wellbeing of FGM survivors.

To increase health professionals’ awareness of this complex area, the Department has commissioned Health Education England to develop specialist FGM mental health e-learning, which will be provided free to all NHS professionals. Existing mental health training materials are also being updated by Health Education England to support awareness and recognition by health professionals of the impact of FGM on mental health.

A ministerial roundtable with senior stakeholders was held on 29 October 2015 to discuss this issue. The Department is working with specialist mental health professionals and professional bodies to consider how best to support commissioners to ensure that mental health services are able to meet the needs of FGM survivors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have received young carer assessments under the Children and Families Act 2014 since its implementation; and what proportion of young carers received services from the local authority to meet their needs following such an assessment.

Edward Timpson

This information is not available to the Department.

From April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support by the local authority. These new provisions work alongside those in the Care Act 2014 for assessing adults to enable ‘whole family approaches’ to assessment and support. This means that when a child is identified as a young carer, the needs of everyone in the family will be considered. This will cause both children’s and adults’ support services to assess why a child has a caring responsibility, what needs to change, and what would help the family to prevent children from taking on this responsibility in the first place.

This reform is intended to ensure effective, joined-up support with the potential to offer a single point of professional contact for young carers and their families.

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 5 January 2016 to Question 20190, if he will make it his policy to collect centrally the number of (a) young carers accessing Children and Adolescene Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) children provided with young carers assessments following contact with CAMHS.

Alistair Burt

This Government has no plans to collect this data centrally. The Government’s focus remains on promoting and supporting proper and effective multi-agency working and whole family approaches to assessment and support.

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 to improve access and make services more widely available across the country so that, where possible, children can access high-quality support locally including vulnerable children which includes young carers.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children of parents with mental illnesses there are in (a) pre-primary, (b) primary and (c) secondary schools in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Department does not collect information on the number of children at any stage of school whose parents are suffering from mental illness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister’s speech of 11 January 2016, on life chances, what the sources of the £60 million of social investment for drug and alcohol treatment are expected to be.

Mr Rob Wilson

The Government has actively supported the growth of the social investment market over the last five years. This includes through the establishment of Big Society Capital which is investing up to £600m in growing the social investment market, and the Social Investment Tax Relief which is incentivising individual investors to make social investments. Other social investors investing in social impact bonds include charitable trusts and foundations as well as institutional investors and dedicated social impact funds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will engage with the #itaffectsme campaign on raising awareness of mental health issues.

Alistair Burt

The Government is working to reduce stigma around mental health, and supports all campaigns, including #itaffectsme, in this area.Any campaign, such as #itaffectsme, which raises awareness in mental health issues, is welcomed. In a speech announcing almost a billion pounds in investment into mental health services on 11 January, the Prime Minister recognised the need to take away the stigma behind mental illness. He said that, ‘as a country, we need to be far more mature about this. Less hushed tones, less whispering; more frank and open discussion. We need to take away that shame, that embarrassment, let people know that they’re not in this alone’.

We continue to provide financial support to the Time to Change programme which works to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and to encourage people to talk about mental health issues and seek help when needed. We are working with the programme and funders to develop the next stage of the programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme recovery rate reaches 50 per cent by March 2016.

Alistair Burt

NHS England (NHSE) monitors clinical commissioning groups’ (CCGs) performance against the recovery target for people who have received psychological therapies through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme. In October 2015, 77 CCGs met the 50% Recovery Standard.

The Department is working closely with NHSE to reduce the variation in recovery rates across CCG areas.

NHSE is also supporting lowest performing IAPT providers to improve their recovery rates and is offering workshops to spread good practice to all commissioners and providers.

The Government is aware of evidence that shows that people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities are less likely to use psychological therapies. There is ongoing activity by NHSE in collaboration with the Department to encourage access to IAPT services by the under-represented groups.

A BAME benchmarking tool has been developed and is currently being piloted by a number of IAPT services. This will assist services to improve access to people from BAME communities by helping those services understand the ethnicity of the population and whether this is reflected within the population they see. It asks services to assess whether outcomes for BAME communities are equivalent to non-BAME patients whilst also checking whether improvements for access to people from BAME communities have been made and specific training for therapists have been utilised. Once pilots are complete NHS England will publish the benchmarking tool for all services to access.

Equality of access is an issue for wider mental health services and that is why the Mental Health Partnership Board is considering the issues around equality of access in mental health services, which includes the IAPT programme.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre publish referrals and outcomes data by ethnic groups. NHSE intends to compare those numbers with BAME prevalence population data to highlight referrals and access rates for ethnic groups at CCG level. CCGs are responsible for taking the necessary actions to address any disparity.