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National Care Standards Commission
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the budget for the National Care Standards Commission is for 2002–03; and what it is forecast to be over the next three financial years. [47530]
Jacqui Smith: The National Care Standards Commission provisional resource budget is £132.5 million for 2002–03, of which £1.5 million is a capital budget. This includes provision for capital charges and depreciation, and assumes that a proportion of the budget will be derived from fee income.
Decisions on the level of funding for 2003–04 to 2005–06 will be made in the light of the work on the 2002 spending review.
Social Care Institute for Excellence
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list (a) the number of people who work for the SCIE, (b) its budget allocation for 2001–02 and (c) the expected budget allocation for the next three years. [48685]
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Jacqui Smith: The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) currently have 24 staff in post and the Department made a total resource of £2 million available for 2001–02, of which £1.1 million was a capital budget.
The SCIE budget for 2002–03 is £3.2 million. Decisions on the level of funding for 2003–04 to 2005–06 will be made in the light of the work on the 2002 spending review.
Emergency Ambulance Calls
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost of the response to 999 ambulance calls received between 10pm and 7am in Barnet was in each of the last three years; how many such calls there were; what estimate he has made of the number of such calls for 2002–03; and if he will make a statement. [46877]
Ms Blears: Information about the cost of a response for ambulance services is not required to be collected centrally.
In 1999 a total of 6,699 calls were received in Barnet between 10pm and 7am; in 2000 there were 6,663 calls and in 2001, 6,854 calls were received.
The London Ambulance Service would expect to receive approximately 7,000 calls in Barnet between 10pm and 7am in 2002–03.
Mental Health
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the link between mental health problems in children and adolescents and suicide/self-harm when they are adults. [47440]
Jacqui Smith: Mental disorder in childhood is a risk factor for mental disorder in adulthood, which itself is a risk factor for suicide and self-harm. The continuities between childhood and adulthood vary according to the nature and severity of the disorder.
Under the leadership of Professor Louis Appleby, National Director for Mental Health, we are developing a coherent national suicide prevention strategy. The strategy will strike a balance between a population approach and a focus on specific high risk/high benefit populations. We recognise that young people are a key "at risk" group and one of the key strategy objectives will be to promote the mental health of children and young people. We plan to publish a draft strategy for wide public consultation later this spring.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when (a) he and (b) his Ministers last met Ministers in DfES to discuss co-ordination of children's mental health services with education services. [47441]
Jacqui Smith: Ministers in the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills have many regular meetings and, although Ministers have not met specifically to discuss this topic, child mental health services are raised at many of these meetings. In addition, officials at both Departments' meet frequently to discuss multi-agency mental health services for children.
The Department for Education and Skills will be an important contributor to the development of the mental health module of the Children's National Service
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Framework. This is a major development and will ensure that co-ordination of child and adolescent mental health services is safeguarded when considering the quality of services.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mental health promotion work is taking place with children and adolescents. [47438]
Jacqui Smith: The promotion of children's mental health and the prevention of mental health problems in childhood are central to many Government programmes.
The Mental Health National Service Framework has set mental health promotion as its first standard. The project group taking this work forward has recently published a "Mental Health Promotion Update" focusing on mental health promotion in schools and for children and young people. Programmes such as sure start are designed to ensure that children get the best possible start in life so that they can thrive and make effective use of opportunities when they start school.
The Department for Education and Skills issued guidance last year specifically addressing mental health promotion in schools, to which this Department contributed. This guidance is designed to increase awareness about children's mental health among teachers and to provide examples of good practice.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the cost of delivering a world class mental health service for children and adolescents. [47432]
Jacqui Smith: The National Service Framework for Children, which will include child and adolescent mental health services and the psychological wellbeing of children and young people, will set out service standards to improve the quality of care provided. The framework will take account of studies on the cost of delivering effective services.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the link between mental health problems in children and adolescents and crime. [47439]
Jacqui Smith: The results of a major literature review on antisocial behaviour by young people, commissioned by the Department, was published in 1998 (Rutter, Giller, Hagel—"Antisocial Behaviour by Young People", Cambridge University Press). This looked at international research evidence on antisocial behaviour and covered all the factors relevant to the development of such behaviour in young people, including mental health problems and serious mental disorder. The review clearly illustrated the complex nature of causal relationships in this field and the difficulty of establishing clear links between psychosocial (and other) risk factors and specific behaviours, including criminality.
In addition a report "Psychiatric Morbidity among Young Offenders in England and Wales" was published by the Office for National Statistics in 2000, representing a further analysis of wider survey data on psychiatric morbidity among prisoners originally collected in 1997 on behalf of the Department. The report included a finding that more than nine in 10 of imprisoned young offenders in the survey showed evidence of mental disorder
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(assessed in the survey as: personality disorder; psychosis; neurotic disorder; drug dependence; and hazardous drinking).
Copies of these documents are available in the Library.
Locum Doctors
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many locum doctors are available, broken down for primary and secondary care, in (a) England, (b) each NHS region and (c) each health authority; [48059]
- (2) what arrangements have been made to ensure there are sufficient locum doctors available in each health authority area; and if he will make a statement; [48063]
(3) if he has plans to increase the use of locum doctors from overseas; and if he will make a statement; [48061]
(4) if his Department monitors the availability of sufficient locum doctors to cover each area in England. [48062]
Mr. Hutton: The information requested is not collected centrally. It is for NHS trusts locally to determine their need for locums and how they are used. However, the Department will be collecting data on medical and dental locums from September 2002 onwards.
From 1 April 2002 all non-principal general practitioners working in the provision of NHS general medical services are required to be on a health authority/primary care trust supplementary list. From June 2002 we will be collecting information on the number of non-principal general practitioners on health authority/ primary care trust supplementary lists as part of the GMS census data.
The NHS Plan set out the Government's intention to increase consultant numbers by 7,500 and GPs by 2,000. We expect increases in the number of permanent staff to help reduce demand for locums.
The Department has advertised in Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East for consultants and GPs. In general, international recruitment for doctors is generating a good level of interest from good quality overseas candidates. The majority of positions will be for full-time consultants. However, some trusts may wish to employ the consultants in locum positions with a view to employing them in permanent positions. This would provide the consultants with an opportunity to experience working in the UK before settling into a permanent post and also enable trusts to assess the induction processes required for the doctor.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many locum doctors there were (a) at the latest available date, (b) in 1999, (c) in 1997 and (d) in 1994. [46740]
Mr. Hutton: The Department stopped collecting data for medical and dental locum numbers in 1996. Data for locum general practitioners are not collected.
Available information is shown in the table.
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| England at 30 September | Numbers | |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 3,040 | |
| 1996 | 2,760 |
Source:
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census
Notes:
Figures rounded to the nearest ten.
Locums are either persons working in the temporary absence of a doctor/dentist until their return or someone who fills a temporary post for a period of time or a vacant post until it is filled.
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