Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 21586, if he will make it his policy to collect figures on the number of psychiatric nurses in each region.

Ben Gummer

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) already make available workforce statistics for all Hospital and Community Health Services staff nationally and by Health Education England region in the annual National Health Service workforce census. This includes the number of nurses working in the area of community psychiatry and other psychiatry and these figures are available by region each month on request to the HSCIC.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2015 to Question 20074, on mental health services: children, whether it is planned that the thematic review will consider children who have been abused as a specific theme separate to children and young people more generally.

Alistair Burt

NHS England aims to finalise and publish its thematic review of how the mental health needs of children and young people in vulnerable groups have been addressed as part of the overall Local Transformation Plan analysis by 30 April 2016. A number of thematic reviews have been commissioned as part of the overall analysis of the Local Transformation Plans. One of these thematic reviews focuses on vulnerable groups of children and young people, which will include children who have been abused.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people (a) with mental health conditions, (b) with long-term disabilities and (c) who receive social care who will be affected by the planned cap on housing benefit for tenants in supported housing.

Alistair Burt

Ministers have not yet made any official representations to other Government departments about the proposed changes to housing benefit for tenants in supported housing. Neither has the Department made any formal estimates of the people likely to be affected by the proposed changes. However, discussions are ongoing at official level between Departments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24145, what support a hospital is expected to provide to people appointed as attorneys to make decisions about property and affairs of people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Alistair Burt

There are no specific guidelines as to what support hospitals should provide to an individual holding a Lasting Power of Attorney for another individual detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. However, when appointed as an attorney, individuals are registered by the Office of the Public Guardian who make them aware of their responsibilities to act in accordance with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). A range of support materials are available on operation of the MCA and hospitals should have an appointed MCA lead person who can help disseminate advice and best practice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of schools which have restricted the school trips which children with autism spectrum disorder can attend in each of the last five years.

Edward Timpson

The Department does not collect data on schools which have restricted the school trips that children with autism can attend.

Public sector bodies, including maintained schools, are covered by the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010. When carrying out their functions they must have regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and foster good relations between disabled and non-disabled children and young people. This duty is anticipatory, which means that schools must take into account the needs of disabled pupils, such as those with autism, when planning school trips and other events.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 emphasises that school leaders should establish and maintain a culture of high expectations that expects those working with children and young people with SEN or disabilities to include them in all the opportunities available to other children and young people so that they can achieve well. This would include opportunities to socialise and attend external school trips.

If parents believe that a school has discriminated against their autistic child in planning school trips, they can make a claim for disability discrimination to the First-tier Tribunal.

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.