Tag: Tracey Crouch

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that numbers of community children’s nurses meet future demand; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Secretary of State has delegated to Health Education England (HEE) the responsibility for delivering a better health and healthcare workforce for England. HEE plans and develops the workforce to ensure a secure workforce supply for the future, balancing need against demand. HEE’s Workforce Plan, published in December 2013, confirmed an increase of 31 (1.4%) in education and training commissions for children’s nurses for 2014-15.

The local education and training boards, which are sub-committees of HEE, work with local providers, including employers, to contribute to HEE’s overall future workforce plan. It is the responsibility of employers to ensure they have the right staff, with the right skills to deliver high quality care, which includes supporting their continuing professional development.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of mental illness in (a) the West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group area, (b) the Medway Clinical Commissioning Group area, (c) Kent and (d) England in each of the last five years.

Norman Lamb

Information on the levels of mental illness in the West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group area, the Medway Clinical Commissioning Group area, Kent and England is not held centrally.

All local authorities are required to develop and publish a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) – an analysis of the current and future health and care needs of the local population – and a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS) to address these needs.

JSNAs and JHWSs form the basis of National Health Service and local authorities’ own commissioning plans, across health, social care, public health and children’s services. Local health and social care commissioners are expected to develop their commissioning plans in line with any relevant JSNA or JHWS, and must be able to justify any parts of their plans which are not consistent.

The JSNA process therefore offers valuable opportunities to drive improvement in meeting the needs of local people with mental health needs. However, the Department has not highlighted any care group or area of need over another as this would risk undermining the purpose of JSNAs being an objective, comprehensive and most importantly – a locally-owned process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children of what age have spent three months or more continuously in hospital in each local health authority in each of the last five years.

Dr Daniel Poulter

Information is not available by local health authority. The attached table gives information by strategic health authority (SHA) of the number of children (by age bands) up to 18 years who have spent more than three months in hospital in the last five years for which information is available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on NHS service provision for seriously ill children and their families of the specialist senior nurses posts funded by the charity Well Child.

Dr Daniel Poulter

We have not made any central assessment of this role. We are aware of the valuable work which Well Child does, and we were able to support Well Child with a grant in 2010-11 from the £19 million we made available for funding local schemes to support children’s palliative care services.

We understand that Well Child funds each nurse for a period of three years after which time the individual National Health Service health provider commits to continue the post. Each nurse is employed and managed by the local healthcare trust in which they work and therefore it would seem that the providers would be best placed to comment on the impact they have made.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure NHS staff have the appropriate training to communicate effectively and compassionately with patients at difficult times in the diagnosis and treatment process; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The content and standard of healthcare professional training is the responsibility of healthcare regulators, which are independent statutory bodies. They have the general function of promoting high standards of education and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that students and newly qualified professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for professional practice.

The Government has mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service. HEE will work with stakeholders to influence training curricula as appropriate.

The Government has announced a series of actions that demonstrate its commitment to creating a culture of openness, candour, learning and accountability in an NHS which puts compassion at its heart. These include placing compassionate care at the heart of the training and recruitment of NHS staff; implementing the Compassion in Practice strategy for nursing and midwifery; and a new care certificate for healthcare assistants.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will consider creating the role of bereavement midwives to work exclusively with parents who have experienced the death of their baby shortly before, during or after birth; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Daniel Poulter

It is for the National Health Service locally to ensure appropriate facilities and services are in place to support bereaved parents following the death of a baby. In line with the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Standards of proficiency for pre-registration midwifery education, all midwives should be proficient in providing care for women who have suffered pregnancy loss, stillbirth or neonatal death.

To assist NHS commissioners and providers, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Standards for Gynaecology and Standards for Maternity sets out clear standards for the level of care provided to help women and their partners experiencing pregnancy loss, including the availability of skilled staff to support parents following a stillbirth or miscarriage. A number of trusts now employ specialist bereavement midwives to provide this support.

Local NHS maternity care providers are responsible for ensuring parents receive appropriate information on bereavement support and services following the death of a baby. To complement information provided locally, information on support for parents after a stillbirth is available on the NHS Choices website at:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Stillbirth/Pages/Getting-help.aspx