Written questions by Moran.

What steps he is taking to help support hospitals to (a) recruit and (b) retain clinical staff in Oxfordshire.

Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual National Health Service trusts. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.That said, we are committed to training the staff the NHS needs, including clinical staff, and ensuring that the NHS remains an attractive place to work for our staff across the country. NHS England already has an extensive retention programme which is addressing matters that are important to staff, such as good occupational health support, options for working more flexibly, and better culture and leadership.This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.

How many vacancies for (a) administrative staff, (b) clinical staff and (c) managers there are in the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and what the average time was for a vacancy to be open in (i) Oxfordshire and (ii) the UK in the last five years.

The Department does not hold information on trust level vacancies by staff groups, or information on the lengths of time that vacancies have been open at a local or national level.

What recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the guidance on services for children with hearing loss.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) in England are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local populations, including services for non-hearing children. NHS England supports ICBs to make informed decisions about the provision of audiology services so that they can provide consistent, high quality, and integrated care to non-hearing children.In 2019, NHS England, with input from the National Deaf Children’s Society, produced a guide for commissioners and providers who support children and young people with hearing loss. The guide provides practical advice on ensuring non-hearing children receive the support they need. In July 2016, NHS England published Commissioning Services for People with Hearing Loss: A Framework for Clinical Commissioning Groups. This framework supports ICBs to make informed decisions about what is good value for the populations they serve and to provide more consistent, high quality, integrated care, including for children with hearing loss. It also addresses inequalities in access and outcomes between hearing services.The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) prioritisation board considered childhood hearing loss as a potential guideline topic last August, but concluded that there is limited evidence available in this area and that the NHS England Action Plan on Hearing Loss addresses care for this population. Later this year, the NICE’s prioritisation board will consider if it should develop a guideline on paediatric audiology following a topic suggestion. It will also consider if the NICE should update its technology appraisal guidance on cochlear implants for children and adults.

What steps he is taking to help ensure that ICBs are providing clear and consistent guidance on help for deaf children in developing language and communication skills.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) in England are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local populations, including services for non-hearing children. NHS England supports ICBs to make informed decisions about the provision of audiology services so that they can provide consistent, high quality, and integrated care to non-hearing children.In 2019, NHS England, with input from the National Deaf Children’s Society, produced a guide for commissioners and providers who support children and young people with hearing loss. The guide provides practical advice on ensuring non-hearing children receive the support they need. In July 2016, NHS England published Commissioning Services for People with Hearing Loss: A Framework for Clinical Commissioning Groups. This framework supports ICBs to make informed decisions about what is good value for the populations they serve and to provide more consistent, high quality, integrated care, including for children with hearing loss. It also addresses inequalities in access and outcomes between hearing services.The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) prioritisation board considered childhood hearing loss as a potential guideline topic last August, but concluded that there is limited evidence available in this area and that the NHS England Action Plan on Hearing Loss addresses care for this population. Later this year, the NICE’s prioritisation board will consider if it should develop a guideline on paediatric audiology following a topic suggestion. It will also consider if the NICE should update its technology appraisal guidance on cochlear implants for children and adults.

What steps his Department is taking to increase the number of certified Auditory Verbal Therapists.

Audiology services in the National Health Service, including provision of therapies for children with hearing loss, are locally commissioned. In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again.

Whether his Department plans to issue Severe Shortage Protocols for (a) methylphenidate, (b) dexamfetamine, (c) atomoxetine, (d) lisdexamfetamine, (e) guanfacine, (f) oestrogel, (g) buproprion and (h) lamotrigine.

Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) enable community pharmacists to supply a specified medicine or device in accordance with a protocol rather than a prescription, with the patient’s consent, and without needing to seek authorisation from the prescriber. SSPs are additional tools that have been used in recent years, alongside a range of other mechanisms, to manage and mitigate medicine and medical devices shortages. SSPs are not introduced unless sufficient supplies of the alternative product to be supplied in accordance with the SSP are available to support the market.Furthermore, SSPs are not suitable for all medicines and patients. For example, patients with complex health needs may not be considered suitable for a supply in accordance with an SSP. In these cases, patients would always be referred back to the prescriber for any decision about their treatment before any therapeutic or generic alterative is supplied. SSPs are not issued for controlled drugs in Schedule II, such as methylphenidate, except under very restricted circumstances.The Department is aware of a supply issue affecting methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets. These supply issues are taking longer to resolve than the Department originally anticipated, and the Department is working with the respective suppliers to further improve the United Kingdom’s supply for the short and long-term as soon as possible. There are no plans to issue a SSP for methylphenidate.The Department is currently unaware of any medicine supply issues affecting dexamfetamine, atomoxetine, lisdexamfetamine, guanfacine, oestrogel, bupropionand, lamotrigine. Therefore, there are no plans to issue SSPs for these medicines.

What information his Department holds on companies involved in supplying PPE which was subsequently marked as do not supply due to being unsuitable for use in the NHS.

The Department holds all pertinent contractual detail on those companies who provided personal protective equipment (PPE) products that were considered unsuitable for use. Between 1 November 2023 and 30 September 2024, approximately 432,700 pallets of unusable PPE have been disposed of.It currently costs approximately £200,000 per week to store PPE unsuitable for National Health Service use. The figure is dynamic because the stock is reducing. NHS Supply Chain manages PPE product supply and logistics and they lease storage for PPE from the following companies GXO and Visku (Bis Henderson).A programme of work is underway to reduce our excess stock. This work will significantly reduce the cost of our storage network and is due to be complete by January 2025 through sales, donations, recycling, and energy from waste.

How much unusable PPE has been disposed of since November 2023.

The Department holds all pertinent contractual detail on those companies who provided personal protective equipment (PPE) products that were considered unsuitable for use. Between 1 November 2023 and 30 September 2024, approximately 432,700 pallets of unusable PPE have been disposed of.It currently costs approximately £200,000 per week to store PPE unsuitable for National Health Service use. The figure is dynamic because the stock is reducing. NHS Supply Chain manages PPE product supply and logistics and they lease storage for PPE from the following companies GXO and Visku (Bis Henderson).A programme of work is underway to reduce our excess stock. This work will significantly reduce the cost of our storage network and is due to be complete by January 2025 through sales, donations, recycling, and energy from waste.

What the cost to the public purse is of storing PPE unsuitable for NHS use; and which companies are contracted to provide such storage services.

The Department holds all pertinent contractual detail on those companies who provided personal protective equipment (PPE) products that were considered unsuitable for use. Between 1 November 2023 and 30 September 2024, approximately 432,700 pallets of unusable PPE have been disposed of.It currently costs approximately £200,000 per week to store PPE unsuitable for National Health Service use. The figure is dynamic because the stock is reducing. NHS Supply Chain manages PPE product supply and logistics and they lease storage for PPE from the following companies GXO and Visku (Bis Henderson).A programme of work is underway to reduce our excess stock. This work will significantly reduce the cost of our storage network and is due to be complete by January 2025 through sales, donations, recycling, and energy from waste.

Whether he has (a) made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing the Liberty Protection Safeguards and (b) had discussions with relevant stakeholders on a timetable for replacing the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards with the Liberty Protection Safeguards.

The implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards was paused by the previous government. The previous government decided to focus on other priorities. No assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing the Liberty Protection Safeguards and there have been no discussions about a timetable to replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards at this time.We do, however, recognise the vital importance of protecting the rights of people who lack mental capacity to consent to their care arrangements, and we are determined to tackle the challenges facing adult social care and to stabilise the system. In addressing these challenges, we will engage a wide range of adult social care stakeholders including people with lived experience of care and their families.

What steps his Department is taking to improve pathways of care for young people with ADHD in Oxfordshire.

The Department is currently considering next steps to improve access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments and care pathways.It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including ADHD care pathways, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.We are supporting a taskforce that NHS England is establishing to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire ICB advises that it has implemented a new assessment model within its neurodevelopmental conditions service to enable the team to carry out additional assessments. It has also commissioned a Living Well with Neurodivergence offer for children and young people with diagnosed or suspected ADHD, launched a parent peer support network for families waiting for assessment, and partnered with Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum to provide a range of workshops for parents.