Tag: Norman Lamb

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Care Quality Commission on proposed changes to the contracts of Experts by Experience.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and adult social care. The CQC is responsible for its own staffing requirements, including any decisions on contracts around the supplying of experts by experience for its inspections of providers.

In line with Cabinet Office approvals processes, the Department:

• gave approval for the CQC to invite tenders for the Experts by Experience programme; and
• having sought and received clarification of the business case from CQC, approved the business case, to enable the CQC to proceed with finalising new contracts for Experts by Experience.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the RAND Europe evaluation of Liaison and Diversion services will be published.

Alistair Burt

RAND Europe will publish its evaluation of the 10 Wave 1 Liaison and Diversion (L&D) pilot services when HM Treasury’s decision on the L&D full business case is announced. This decision is expected shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department has received from NHS employers on the number of junior doctors who have worked weekends in the last six months.

Ben Gummer

The Department does not routinely collect this information. However NHS Employers conducted a survey of employers in January 2016, which asked what percentage of junior doctors worked 1 in 4 weekends or more frequently. The data returned reflected a snapshot (rather than the last six months).

Based on a response from 14 employers in England, 40% worked more frequently than 1 in 4 Saturdays.

Our manifesto commitment, which was translated into the mandate that shaped the contract negotiation, was for the National Health Service to standardise urgent and emergency care, it is not about elective care. It is true that some hospitals do elective work at weekends. That is part of the trust’s local decision-making and it is right for the hospital to make that decision.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the outcomes were of Chief Constable David Shaw’s review of the publication of taser data and other use of force by police officers; and if she will place in the Library a copy of the findings and recommendations of that review.

Mike Penning

Data is not recorded centrally on the number of times the police have deployed Taser devices on psychiatric wards. A Taser record is completed by police officers each time a Taser is used. However, this record does not currently show the detailed geographical or type of location.

Police Use of Taser statistics are published by the Home Office and most recently on 28 April 2016. These provide a snapshot of Taser use.

We have been very clear that the public need greater transparency and that is why the Home Secretary asked Chief Constable David Shaw to lead an in-depth review of the publication of Taser data and other use of force by police officers.

The review recommended that the police record and publish the ethnicity, age, location and outcome of all serious use of force by police officers, including physical restraint and Taser. Pathfinder forces started to collect this data from April this year, and it is anticipated that the collection will form part of the 2017-18 Home Office Annual Data Return.

A copy of Chief Constable David Shaw’s review will be placed in the House library. The review contained no data on the number of times the police have used Taser in mental health settings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to set additional access and waiting time standards for NHS mental health services following the introduction of standards for adult IAPT and Early Intervention in Psychosis services.

Alistair Burt

NHS England (NHSE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health published on 3 August 2015, a commissioning guide for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that will set out how to implement the access and waiting time standard for children and young people with an eating disorder. The standard will be refined for implementation from 2017–18. From 2017, NHSE will set a minimum proportion of young people referred for assessment or treatment that are expected to receive treatment within the standard’s timeframe.

We expect that the Mental Health Taskforce report and Mental Health Five Year Forward View will set a plan for developing appropriate pathways and we will work with NHSE to agree next steps.

Departmental Ministers meet with the Chief Executive of NHS England regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including access and waiting time standards for mental health services.

CCGs do not receive a specific allocation for mental health services, but are required to allocate funds as appropriate to all the services that they are responsible for commissioning. For 2015/16, CCGs received increases in allocations in total of 3.7%, though the increase varied for each CCG.

In the planning guidance for 2015/16, NHS England asked that all CCGs increase their spend on mental health by at least as much as their overall increase in allocation.

In total, CCGs have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure which exceeds the increase in their allocation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will direct HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary to investigate Kent Police’s handling of a complaint of alleged corruption within the BBC in Tunbridge Wells made by a constituent of the hon. Member for North Norfolk.

Mike Penning

The role of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) is to inspect the efficiency and effectiveness of forces. If an individual is unhappy with the way a force has handled a specific matter, then they are able to make a complaint, either through the force directly, or via the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) or the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The Home Office does not intervene in individual complaint cases. It would be for the force to determine whether a complaint should be subject to a local investigation or referral to the IPCC under part 2 of the Police Reform Act 2002. The handling of police complaints must be customer focused, simple to understand and transparent throughout. Through the Policing and Criminal Justice Bill we will increase accountability and transparency in the complaints system by strengthening the role of directly-elected PCCs, and by reforming the IPCC to ensure that it has the powers it needs to secure public confidence and investigate complaints effectively.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many bed days relating to delayed transfers of care out of tier four child and adolescent mental health services beds there were in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Alistair Burt

Data from NHS England indicates that between November 2015 and February 2016 there were 1,834 bed days relating to delayed discharges. This represents the total number of days from when a patient should have been discharged until when they were, or until 1 February 2016 if the patient had not yet been discharged by this date.

Data prior to November 2015 is inaccurate and no data exists prior to April 2013.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25396, if she will place in the Library the recovery plan in place at the Metropolitan Police Service for improving performance in completing Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

Karen Bradley

The operational performance plans of police disclosure units are matters for Chief Constables in association with Police and Crime Commissioners.

The DBS regularly publishes detailed datasets showing statistics against internal performance standards which form the basis of its monthly reports to the Home Office. This includes performance against their target to issue 95% of all disclosures within 56 days and the number of disclosure applications in progress each month. This can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-1-disclosure-progress-information-disclosed-and-update-service-subscriptions.

DBS also publishes datasets showing statistics against service level agreements with police forces. These apply to the performance of police disclosure units and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-5-police-disclosure-unit-performance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2016 to Question 27614, where the additional funding for children and young people’s mental health services in 2015-16 that was not allocated to clinical commissioning groups has been allocated; how such funding will be spent; and in what ways such funding has been spent to date.

Alistair Burt

An ambitious national programme of work is in place to support local transformation. Pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2016 to Question 27614 the remaining £68 million is being spent centrally this financial year across the course of this Parliament on workforce and system development to deliver the following:

― expansion of the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme;

― improvements to perinatal mental health care;

― investment, centrally in inpatient services for children and young people;

― building workforce capability; and

― supporting innovation and development of online support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of primary care inspections by the Care Quality Commission on improving clinical outcomes for patients.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. It is responsible for assessing whether providers are meeting the fundamental standards below which care should not fall.

The CQC has provided the following information.

As of 31 March 2016, 3,281 general practitioner (GP) practices had received at least one overall published rating from the CQC. Of these, 4% are rated outstanding, 83% are rated good, 10% are rated requires improvement and 3% are rated inadequate. In addition to each overall rating, each practice also receives ratings for each of the CQC’s five key questions, is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led set out above. This set of ratings for each practice, along with the overall rating provide a strong basis for improving clinical outcomes by highlighting where care is already good and where improvement is required.

106 GP practices have been re-inspected following an overall rating of requires improvement or inadequate. Of these locations, 81 have had an improvement in their overall rating following re-inspection.

There have been 153 GP practices / Out of Hours services placed into special measures. Subsequently, 43 have exited special measures and the majority of locations placed in special measures that have been re-inspected, have improved. At present 84% have improved, with over half of those improving moving up two categories to an overall good rating. Where the CQC has found unacceptably poor care, patients have been protected with a total of 16 de-registrations to date.