Tag: Luciana Berger

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all GPs are trained in awareness of learning disabilities.

Ben Gummer

It is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC) to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified general practitioners are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in awareness of learning disabilities.

Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow healthcare students to meet the outcomes set out by the GMC upon graduation.

The royal colleges, for example the Royal College of General Practitioners, also have responsibility for developing curricula for general practitioners, in particular postgraduate curricula.

Health Education England (HEE) works with bodies that set curricula such as the GMC and the royal colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.

HEE is undertaking a review of curricula of all National Health Service commissioned training programmes to include recognised areas of health including learning disability, mental illness, physical illness and physical ill health and social support needs. HEE will work with regulatory bodies including the GMC to agree the standards and content for education and training; this is anticipated to be completed by April 2017.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what public information leaflets and literature have been published by (a) his Department and (b) NHS England on mental health.

Alistair Burt

The Department has published a number of information leaflets and other literature, as have NHS England. These documents are available on the Government and NHS England websites:

https://www.gov.uk/search?q=mental+health

and

https://www.england.nhs.uk/?s=mental+health

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of schools employ a mental health specialist as a permanent member of staff.

Mr Sam Gyimah

This is a matter for schools to decide. We have recently commissioned an extensive survey which will provide nationally representative estimates of what provision schools and colleges offer for mental health and character education. The fieldwork will begin in the summer term.

We are also contributing to a £3 million joint pilot with NHS England for training single points of contact in schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist support where needed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of mental health trusts (a) offer female patients a choice of a female care coordinator, (b) conduct routine enquiries with female patients about experiences of abuse and violence and (c) provide gender-sensitive care.

Alistair Burt

This information is not held centrally.

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 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children in England on a child protection plan have been (a) referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) received treatment from CAMHS in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

This data has not been collected centrally. However, in February this year for the first time the Health and Social Care Information Centre began collecting a range of data about children and young people’s use of secondary mental health services via the new Mental Health Services Dataset. This includes data on whether children and young people using services are, or have been, subject to a child protection plan. Data quality and quantity will take time to build, but we expect a range of national reports to be developed during the course of 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce premature death among people (a) with autism and a learning disability and (b) with autism and no learning disability.

Alistair Burt

Information is not collected centrally on how many clinical commissioning groups collect prevalence and standardised mortality data on autistic people as part of their joint strategic needs assessments.

The National Health Service is taking action to reduce premature death among people with autism and a learning disability, and with autism by increasing annual health checks for people with learning disabilities, including for those who also have autism. The NHS is working to reduce variation and improve care for physical health conditions that disproportionately impact on people with learning disabilities who also may have autism, including epilepsy and cancer. NHS England has commissioned the world’s first Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme to support local areas to review deaths of people with learning disabilities and to use the information to improve service provision. This review programme for people with learning disabilities includes those who also have autism.

Think Autism set out a clear, cross Government programme of action, developed alongside people with autism, their families and carers to improve their lives and reduce premature mortality through better access to healthcare by making adjustments to services. This includes supporting the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGPs) Autism Initiative to improve understanding of autism amongst GPs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what evaluation his Department has undertaken of the adequacy of the (a) current and (b) future workforce requirements for clinical psychologists under the NHS England transformation plan for achieving the goals of the five-year forward view.

Alistair Burt

Health Education England (HEE) is working with NHS England, Public Health England, professional bodies, charities, experts-by-experience and others to develop and deliver a costed, multi-disciplinary workforce strategy for the future shape and skill mix of the workforce (including clinical psychologists) required to deliver the independent Mental Health Taskforce’s Five Year Forward View and the workforce recommendations set out in Future in Mind. This strategy will deliver the necessary workforce skill mix and capacity to support the core Mental Health Taskforce recommendations for improved access and quality of care. In 2015/16, HEE commissioned 526 training places for clinical psychologists, maintaining its previous level of investment in this staff group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 26065, on mental illness: employment, whether the guidance for businesses on addressing mental health issues has been published.

Alistair Burt

Public Health England and Business in the Community (BITC) have produced a Mental Health Workplace digital toolkit for employers to address mental health issues at work. The toolkit builds on the existing best practice and considers the transferable learning between business sectors and businesses of different sizes. The toolkit will be published on BITC’s website on 16 May 2016 to coincide with the start of 2016 Mental Health Awareness Week.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the NHS England Five Year Forward View on Mental Health, published in February 2016, what progress has been made on Recommendation 34 on incentive payments.

Alistair Burt

The Government is working with delivery partners to carefully consider the independent Mental Health Taskforce’s recommendations and aims to publish a strategic implementation plan in the autumn that will set out how Government and partners will deliver the recommendations.