Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of clinical commissioning groups increased their spending on children and young people’s mental health as a proportion of their overall budget in 2015-16; and how many are forecast to increase such spending in 2016-17.

Alistair Burt

For 2015-16 we do not hold details on the increase in spend by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) on children and young people’s mental health. However a detailed and robust assurance process was set up and 123 Local Transformation Plans to improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing at local level were submitted to NHS England during 2015-16. This process covered every CCG in England. An assurance process was established with detailed financial tracking arrangements to ensure that the additional money was spent for the purposes intended and that locally determined key performance indicators are being met. No funding was allocated without full assurance in place.

For 2016-17 we are currently collecting planned spend on mental health services as part of NHS England financial planning processes. Programme level spend, including children and young people’s mental health spend, will be monitored routinely throughout the year and any adverse variances from agreed plans will be escalated through the routine financial reporting.

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 28 on digital infrastructure.

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to improve mobile telephone coverage in the Liverpool City Region.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Improving mobile coverage remains a priority for the Government, and our landmark agreement in December 2014 with the four mobile network operators (MNOs) for each to provide voice and SMS text coverage to at least 90% of the UK landmass by 2017 will significantly improve coverage in the UK, including the Liverpool City Region. The additional licence obligation on Telefonica, which the other MNOs have publicly stated they will match, will deliver significant improvements in 4G coverage – covering 98% of UK premises by the end of 2017.

In support of this work, the Government is also reforming mobile planning laws (in England only) and the Electronic Communications Code to make it cheaper and quicker for industry to invest and deliver coverage improvements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that the Cheshire and Merseyside Sustainability and Transformation Plan is published in full before NHS England agrees transformation plans in October 2016.

David Mowat

Local areas will submit their plans to the national health and care bodies for review in October, with further public engagement and consultation taking place from this point.

We expect that most areas will take a version of their Sustainability and Transformation Plan to their organisation’s public board meeting for discussion between late October and the end of the year. We would also expect that most areas will publish their plans, for more formal engagement, during this period, building on the engagement they have already done to shape thinking. No changes to the services people currently receive will be made without local engagement and, where required, consultation.

NHS England, with other national health and care bodies, released guidance to the local areas developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans entitled ‘Engaging local people’ in September 2016 which can be found on their website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many clinical commissioning groups commission foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and foetal alcohol syndrome services.

Mr Philip Dunne

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of methods used for collecting data on (a) foetal alcohol syndrome and (b) foetal alcohol syndrome disorder.

Nicola Blackwood

The Department has not made any such assessment. Data on foetal alcohol syndrome and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is not collected centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start children’s centres offer perinatal mental health support for new and expectant mothers.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Department for Education does not routinely collect the information requested. While perinatal mental health is important to the government, we believe that children’s centres are best placed to decide which services to offer, based on an assessment of local needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Training service places were commissioned in 2014-15.

Alistair Burt

There were 756 training places commissioned for improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) programmes in 2014/15. In addition 509 trainees attended Child and Young People’s (CYP) IAPT courses in 2014/15.

The following table contains an aggregate of the number of training places that have been commissioned in each of the last four financial years for the IAPT programmes. Comparable information relating to the IAPT programmes is not held centrally for the 2011/12 financial year.

2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
IAPT training places commissioned	634	859	756	946

Source: multi professional education and training budget monitoring returns

The following table details the number of trainees attending CYP IAPT courses per year of the programme in the last five years.

	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Trainee Therapist	97	142	252	372	537
Supervisor	30	45	88	86	113
Service Lead	35	48	73	51	114
TOTAL	162	235	413	509	764

Source: NHS England

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many NHS (a) doctors and (b) nurses have been signed off work due to (i) stress and (ii) other mental illness in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer

The Department does not collect centrally data on how many doctors and nurses have been signed off work due to stress and other mental illness.

Employers across the National Health Service are responsible for reducing staff absences due to stress and mental illness through local sickness absence policies.

NHS England recently launched "A healthy NHS workforce"[1], a commitment in its Five Year Forward View[2] "to ensure the NHS as an employer sets a national example in the support it offers its own staff to stay healthy".

Working with Public Health England and NHS Employers, NHS England aims to improve NHS staff health spearheaded by a group of provider and commissioner organisations. Work will include ensuring board level leadership and engagement as well as line manager training to increase awareness of mental health issues, helping them manage staff in a way which is supportive to health and wellbeing.

The Department continues to commission NHS Employers to help trusts improve staff mental health and wellbeing through advice, guidance and good practice[3].

The launch in July of NHS Employers’ How are you feeling NHS? Toolkit[4] enables staff to talk more openly about their emotional health, helps trusts improve the assessment of the impact emotional wellbeing has on staff and patients and supports action planning to improve staff emotional health and wellbeing.

[1] https://www.england.nhs.uk/2015/09/02/nhs-workplace/

[2] https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

[3] http://www.nhsemployers.org/search-results?q=supporting+staff+who+are+experiencing+mental+health+issues

[4] http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/retain-and-improve/staff-experience/health-work-and-wellbeing/protecting-staff-and-preventing-ill-health/how-are-you-feeling-nhs-toolkit

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the funding distributed by NHS England to improve eating disorder services has been spent; and what that funding has been spent on.

Alistair Burt

For 2015/16, NHS England has distributed £30 million to clinical commissioning groups in order to improve services for children and young people with eating disorders. The funding will be used to reduce waiting times and to improve the way in which services are delivered for people with eating disorders. A specific aim is to move towards providing specialist care on an out-patient basis so that fewer young people will need admission to hospital. The expectation is this will improve outcomes and allow more young people to receive treatment closer to home.

Clinical commissioning groups have led the development of Local Transformation Plans for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing that include plans for how the eating disorder allocation will be spent. The deadline for submission was Friday 16 October and the plans are being assured by NHS England’s regional assurance teams. Expenditure will be monitored against the plans over the remainder of the financial year.