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Diabetes

Mr. Singh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for increasing diabetes risk awareness among the Asian and African-Caribbean population. [125956]

Yvette Cooper: We recognise the importance of raising awareness about the risk factors and symptoms of diabetes among both the public and health care professionals, including the Asian and African-Caribbean populations. We announced last year the development of a National Service Framework (NSF) for diabetes in England, to be published in 2001. The aims of the diabetes NSF are to improve health outcomes for people with diabetes by raising the quality of services and reducing variations between them. The scope of the NSF is broad and covers prevention, identification and management of diabetes and its complications, including rehabilitation and continuing care. The diabetes NSF will pay particular heed to the needs of those who are disproportionately affected by diabetes, such as people from minority ethnic groups.

Cancer Treatment Centres

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the cancer treatment centres available in NHS hospitals in the Greater London area. [127157]

Yvette Cooper: The Calman/Hine Report, "A Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer Services", recommended that networks of care should be developed encompassing primary care, cancer units and cancer centres. The Report provided a broad service model framework for the development of cancer units and cancer centres, but did not set national standards. The first stage of Calman/Hine has reflected early implementation of the Calman/Hine recommendations, reflected the different

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starting points across the county, and allowed an evaluation of services by health authorities and regional offices, based on general Calman/Hine principles, to fit local needs.

The London Regional Office has identified five cancer networks in London and the Cancer centres in each network as follows:

South East London

Joint Cancer Centre: Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust

King's Healthcare NHS Trust (known as GKT)

South West London

Joint Cancer Centre: Royal Marsden NHS Trust (Sutton/Fulham)

St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust

North West London

Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust

(Charing Cross and Hammersmith sites)

North Central London

Joint Cancer Centre: University College London Hospitals NHS Trust

Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust

Linked with North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust as a radiotherapy provider

North East London

Joint Cancer Centre: St. Bartholomew's and The London NHS Trust

Havering Hospitals NHS Trust (Oldchurch).

In addition, the cancer centre at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, located in the Eastern Region provides cancer centre services to some of the population of the London Region especially Hillingdon Health Authority, Brent and Harrow Health Authority and Barnet Health Authority.

Health and Social Care (Rural Areas)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to address health and social care problems of rural areas in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement. [127299]

Mr. Denham: The National Plan for the National Health Service, due to be published later this month, will address the issue of how to improve partnership between health and social care throughout the country. Our plans to improve services across the board in rural areas will be addressed in the forthcoming Rural White Paper.

Children's Services

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of local councils' plans to improve children's services; and if he will make a statement. [131790]

Mr. Hutton: I have today placed in the Library a copy of the report "Tracking Progress in Children's Services: An Evaluation of Local Responses to the Quality Protects Programme Year 2".

When we launched the Quality Protects programme in September 1998, we required local authorities to submit annual Management Action Plans to show how they were intending to improve the management and delivery of children's social services. This report presents the key

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messages and findings from the second round of Management Actions Plans (MAPs) which were received in January 2000.

Councils have made a good start over the past year in implementing the Quality Protects programme. For example we have seen:

more corporate working across councils and more partnership working with voluntary organisations


an increase in the proportion of children looked after in foster care or placed for adoption


a reduction in re-registrations on the child protection register


more support being given to care leavers


an increase in education support being given to looked after children

more councils listening to children and young people in their care


improvements in the collecting and using of management information.

But if there are to be real and lasting gains for children, these early improvements must be built on and further substantial progress made in 2000-01. The Government's determination to support this change is demonstrated by the significant increase in special grant available for funding this year (from £75 million to £120 million). We will expect progress in 2000-01 to be commensurate with this increase in funding.

Ambulance Services

Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in the consultation on the delivery of modern ambulance services in the South East Region of the NHS, what

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assessment he has made of the cost to fundholders of reorganisation (a) in total and (b) for each of the eight ambulance service trusts; what provision he has made to meet these costs through additional funding; when the allocations made to these trusts to help reach new standards will be dispensed to them in full from the £21 million allocated for this purpose by his Department; what measures he is proposing to ensure that adequate resources are safeguarded for rural services; and if he will make a statement. [131215]

Ms Stuart: We have invested an extra £21 million to help ambulance services speed up response times. Of this, the South East Region received a total of £4.2 million.

All eight ambulance services in the south east have developed and agreed a vision to ensure that the region's population have speedy access to high quality, modern and dependable ambulance services which are integrated with care provided by local National Health Service partners and other agencies.

Further work is currently being undertaken before final proposals are subject to full public consultation.

Health Action Zones

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the budget allocation for each health action zone in each year since their introduction and for next year. [130512]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested for 1998-99 to 2000-01 is given in the table. Decisions on funding for 2001-02 have not yet been made.

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Health action zone funding: 1998-99 to 2000-01£000

HAZ	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	Total
1st wave
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham	1,206	6,137	7,415	14,758
East London	777	5,535	6,339	12,661
Plymouth	410	2,043	2,258	4,711
Luton	309	1,300	2,622	3,871
Sandwell	501	2,302	2,794	5,597
South Yorkshire Coalfields	820	5,539	6,484	12,843
Manchester, Salford and Trafford	992	7,050	8,496	16,538
Bradford	502	3,822	4,705	9,029
Tyne and Wear	906	8,709	9,815	19,500
Northumberland	292	2,395	2,773	5,460
North Cumbria	447	2,298	2,515	5,260
1st wave total	7,162	47,141	55,856	110,228
2nd Wave
Tees	20	3,232	5,381	8,633
Wakefield	20	1,666	2,620	4.306
Leeds	20	3,610	5,863	9,492
Hull and East Riding	20	2,824	4,727	7,571
Merseyside	20	7,445	12,246	19,711
Bury and Rochdale	20	2,004	3,263	5,287
Nottingham	20	3,105	5,047	8,172
Sheffield	20	2,923	4,599	7,542
Leicester City	20	1,502	2,510	4,032
Wolverhampton	20	1,388	2,320	3,728
Walsall	20	1,376	2,345	5,741
North Staffordshire	20	2,056	3,189	5,265
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	20	2,288	3,641	5,949
Camden and Islington	20	2,372	3,734	6,126
Brent	20	1,294	1,996	3,310
2nd wave total	300	39,085	63,480	101,064
Central and other innovations	364	1,700	1,517	3,581
Total	7,826	87,926	120,853	216,673

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19 Jul 2000 : Column: 241W

Notes:
HAZ funding comes from a number of sources:
1. The HAZ central budget comprising three elements:
programme funding for joint projects with other agencies (1998-99 to 2000-01);
innovations funding (1999-2000 and 2000-01);
central and other innovations (1998-99 to 2000-01).
In 1998-99 a small part of the purchaser development budget was used to provide some start up costs for HAZs;
2. Funding for smoking cessation for 1999-2000 and 2000-01.
3. Funding for drugs prevention services in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. In 1998-99 and 1999-2000 1st wave HAZs received the allocation and in 2000-01 2nd wave HAZs receive the money.
4. Targeted funds for deprived areas. This is allocated to health authorities which include HAZs within their boundaries.

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