Every parliamentary written question tabled by Peter Bedford this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 41–51 of 51 · Department of Health and Social Care
Whether they have made an estimate of the potential impact of abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion roles in their Department on annual staffing costs.
The Department has no current roles which focus exclusively on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The roles to support the Department's legal and policy obligations under this remit are integrated into its wider human resources and policy functions. Therefore, the Department has not made such an estimate.
Whether his Department is using AI software in responding to written parliamentary questions.
Artificial intelligence does not form part of the established process within the Department for answering written parliamentary questions.
What recent progress his Department has made on reducing the backlog of children and young people waiting for mental health services in Leicestershire.
Child and adolescent mental health services work with young people and their families from across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. The service also links with other children’s services, such as early help, schools, and social care to provide a multi-agency approach.Leicestershire Partnership Trust is taking the following steps to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for mental health services:- timely discharge of children and young people who have completed a course of intervention to ensure flow through the service and reduced waits;- ascertain if group work is an appropriate option to ensure early support, preventing further waits;- clinical staff are asked to consider if they are able to work additional hours to increase capacity;- a robust recruitment and retention plan to reduce vacancies, which will increase capacity to offer more sessions and/or interventions; and- service wide capacity and demand work to ensure all available service capacity is used.The following are some of the measures the Mental Health Support Teams in Schools service has in place to manage waits:- weekly allocation meetings to prevent children and young people waiting beyond four weeks; and- where there is a situation where a child or young person has been waiting for longer than four weeks, a referral would be allocated to a practitioner outside of the referral area to ensure the quickest access and to reduce waiting time, and a phone consultation would be offered to determine whether the child or young person can be signposted to another service.
If he will take steps to improve the education of (a) frontline healthcare staff and (b) the public on the (i) symptoms and (ii) signs of sepsis.
Sepsis has no specific diagnostic test, and the signs and symptoms can vary, making it challenging to identify and diagnose.The Government and its Arm’s Length Bodies are focused on improving the clinical awareness and recognition of sepsis by healthcare professionals, so that unwell and deteriorating patients are identified promptly and started on life-saving treatment. NHS England has launched several training programmes aimed at improving the diagnosis and early management of sepsis. These programmes are regularly reviewed and revised with support from subject matter experts as updated national sepsis guidance is implemented. Individual National Health Service trusts may also choose to implement additional initiatives on sepsis locally.The UK Health Security Agency provides public facing campaigns and resources for professionals’ focus on various aspects of infection. These include resources on infection prevention and control, antibiotic stewardship, managing common infections, diagnostic decision making, and patient information leaflets, including safety advice on sepsis.
If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a vaccination programme for primary school children against Group A Streptococcal infection.
The Department works closely with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England, with expert advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, to design, implement, and deliver vaccination programmes offering high levels of long-term protection.There is currently no licensed vaccine for the Group A Streptococcus (GAS) bacterium in the world. In the absence of a vaccine, UKHSA has been actively involved in several projects to increase our understanding of the transmission of GAS infections and identification of key risk factors. These have formed the basis of national public health guidelines to control the spread of infection and protect those most at risk.NHS England also provides public guidance on how parents can protect themselves and their children against GAS, including recognising the symptoms and getting treatment. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/strep-a/
What information he holds on the number of hospitals in Leicestershire that have not followed the appropriate discharge procedure for parents in the last five years.
Statutory guidance on hospital discharge procedures that was published in January 2024 sets out how local areas should plan and implement hospital discharge to support safe and timely discharge for all individuals. The guidance is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidanceLocal areas should provide the monitoring of discharge quality and performance to ensure that the agreed hospital discharge procedures are being followed consistently.
If he will take legislative steps to protect designated outdoor pub smoking and vaping areas.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was introduced to Parliament on 5 November 2024, and passed its second reading in the House of Commons on 25 November 2024. The bill will put us on track to a smoke-free United Kingdom, helping to reduce approximately 80,000 preventable deaths and reduce the burden on the National Health Service and on the taxpayer.The bill contains powers to extend the ban on smoking indoors to certain outdoor settings, to reduce the harms of second-hand smoking, particularly around children and vulnerable people. In England, we are considering extending smoke-free outdoor places to outside schools, children’s playgrounds, and hospitals, but not to outdoor hospitality settings such as pub gardens. The bill also has powers to make most public places and workplaces that are smoke-free, vape-free.Exactly which settings should become smoke-free and vape-free will be a matter for secondary legislation, with all proposed reforms subject to a full consultation.
How many employee settlement agreements there were in his Department in each year since 2020; and what the total value of such agreements is.
I can confirm that since 2020 to date, the Department has had one settlement agreement in 2024. The settlement agreement was for the value of £20,000.
How many NHS employees' contracts of employment were terminated for underperformance in each year since 2020.
NHS England publish monthly statistics detailing information on National Health Service staff recorded within the Electronic Staff Record, the human resource system for the NHS. Each quarter, these statistics include data on ‘reasons for leaving’, where these have been recorded upon a member of staff leaving or moving employment. The published data is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statisticsThe attached table summarises the published information, providing details for 2011/12 to 2023/24 of the total number of assignments of NHS staff where a reason for leaving is recorded. Within the total number, the number recorded against the four categories available to define dismissals are also presented. We believe the category ‘dismissal – capability’ is the best proxy for the data requested.Data is presented from 2011/12 as we know the pattern of staff leaving or moving roles in the NHS was impacted in 2020/21 and 2021/22 by the pandemic and so comparison with pre-pandemic levels is appropriate.Any interpretation of data should be made with the understanding that not all assignments that finish in the NHS result in a ‘reason for leaving’ being recorded. Therefore, the data presented can be viewed as a minimum number of leavers in any giving category. From analysis of the records of staff who leave NHS employment entirely it is estimated around one third of leavers do not have a reason recorded. There is no data available to confirm the completeness of recording of reasons around dismissals.
What plans he has for the future of NHS procurement frameworks.
As one of the interventions in the Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial and a workstream in the Commercial Efficiencies Optimisation Programme, NHS England launched an Accredited Framework Host programme in late 2023.The ambition is to drive efficiency by creating the best commercial routes to market for the National Health Service, aiming to create a healthy, competitive marketplace by de-duplicating framework agreements, to deliver high quality procurement outcomes.NHS England successfully accredited 20 Procurement Framework Host organisations, which cover £16 billion of third-party goods and services the NHS spent in 2023/24, all of whom have subscribed to enhanced standards. These standards cover a range of areas, from minimum contractual terms and conditions, robust supplier appointment and value for money assessment processes, through to the sharing of commercial and commission data with NHS England.Further details and the list of accredited host organisations is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/system-guidance-for-the-implementation-of-framework-host-management/
How many and what proportion of pensioners qualify for free prescriptions.
The number of identified patients aged 60 years old or over who received a prescription that was recorded as exempt from the single item prescription charge in England in 2023/24 was 13.6 million.