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11 Dec 2006 : Column 864W—continued
Physician Assistants
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans her Department has for the employment of physician assistants in the health service. [105871]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: It is the responsibility of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities to analyse their local work force needs and develop plans, in liaison with their local NHS trusts and primary care providers, to deliver high quality services and take action to secure the appropriate staff and skills to deliver these services.
Primary Care Trusts
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts do not have full-time directors of finance in post. [106139]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information is not collected centrally.
Protection of Vulnerable Adults
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in how many cases individuals have challenged their inclusion on the protection of vulnerable adults list by appealing to the care standards tribunal; how many of those appeals were successful; and what the (a) average and (b) maximum time taken has been for an appeal to be decided. [102393]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The number of individuals who have challenged their inclusion on the protection of vulnerable adults list by appealing to the care standards tribunal is 48. Of those, 32 appeal cases have been completed, of which 11 cases have been won by the appellants and 21 by the Secretary of State.
I understand from the President of the care standards tribunal that the average length of time taken for an appeal to be decided is 74.4 days and the maximum time taken has been around 355 days.
Radiographers
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the (a) actual and (b) optimum number of (i) diagnostic and (ii) therapeutic radiographers working in the NHS. [106122]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
As at September 2005 there were a total of 14,539 radiographers working in the national
health service, of which 12,700 were diagnostic radiographers and 1,839 were therapeutic radiographers.
It is the responsibility of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities to analyse their local situation and develop plans, in liaison with their local NHS trusts and primary care providers, to deliver high quality NHS services and take action to recruit the appropriate staff required to deliver these services.
School Nurses
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) school nurses and (b) school health assistants have been made redundant in the last three years in (i) Coventry and (ii) England; and what steps she is taking to ensure that the ratio of school nurses to school clusters is reached. [104210]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information on redundancies of school nurses and school health assistants is not collected centrally.
The Department, along with the Department for Education and Skills, is continuing to ensure that the profile of school nurses remains high nationally.
Ministers and the chief nursing officer continue to communicate the importance of school nurses to the national health service, and work with professional bodies to promote their modern role.
Southampton Independent Sector Treatment Centre
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she expects the contract for the proposed Southampton Independent sector treatment centre to be signed. [103647]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The contract is still in negotiation. Financial close is scheduled for May 2007.
Substance Misuse: Training
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what training on substance misuse is provided to (a) social workers and (b) midwives. [104630]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: For health and social care professionals, it is the responsibility of the appropriate regulatory bodies to set standards for the pre-registration training of doctors, nurses, social workers and other health care professionals and approve the education institutions that provide the training and determine the curricula.
Post-registration training needs for national health service staff are determined against local NHS priorities, through appraisal processes and training needs analyses informed by local delivery plans and the needs of the service. The post-qualification framework for social workers has been reviewed by the General Social Care Council and new arrangements for post qualification awards will come into force in September 2007.
For health and social care workers, national occupational standards set out the skills, knowledge and values required and are used as benchmarks for national vocational qualifications. Joint health and
social care national occupational standards contain specific standards on dealing with substance abuse.
It is the responsibility of social care service providers and NHS trusts to ensure that their employees are suitably qualified and competent.
Waiting Times
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was (a) between written referral from a general practitioner to the first out-patient appointment with a pain management consultant and (b) for patients waiting for elective admission where the main specialty is pain management in (i) England and (ii) each primary care trust in each of the last five years. [106043]
Andy Burnham: The information has been placed in the Library.
The average waiting time figures for England are shown in table 1. From April 2004, pain management was no longer a specialty in its own right, and activity will now be contained in the anaesthetic specialty.
The numbers at primary care trust level are too small to calculate an average wait accurately. Tables 2 to 9 show the numbers waiting by number of weeks waiting by PCT by year for the pain management and anaesthetics specialties.
Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps Waltham Forest primary care trust has taken to minimise the level of emergency admissions to Whipps Cross hospital; and what average daily admissions were (a) before and (b) after the implementation of such measures. [106162]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This is a matter for Waltham Forest primary care trust. However, I am advised by NHS London that some of the measures introduced by the PCT include appointing community nurses to work closely with district nurses to target frequent accident and emergency visitors; using new software to identify patients at high risk of re-admission, increasing the number of clinicians in A & E; working with social services to ensure people have appropriate care and introducing health visitors to offer proactive care to people who visit A & E.
The figures requested are not held centrally.
Willesden Community Hospital
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the future of Willesden Community hospital. [105787]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This is a matter for the local NHS.
Work Absence: Gastric Complaints
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether her Department has assessed the effects of gastric complaints on absence from work. [105932]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department continues to monitor sickness absence generally but not specifically gastric complaints.
York Hospitals NHS Trust
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much capital expenditure York hospitals NHS trust incurred in 2005-06 for (a) software licences, (b) buildings, (c) assets under construction, (d) plant and machinery, (e) transport equipment and (f) information technology; and what the total capital expenditure by the trust was in that year. [106448]
Andy Burnham: Capital expenditure by York hospitals NHS trust in 2005-06 has been set out in the following table.
| £000 | |
| Source: Audited summarisation schedules of the York hospitals NHS trust 2005-06 | |
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the end-of-year revenue expenditure of York hospitals NHS trust was, excluding expenditure on services subsequently transferred to the primary care trust, in each year since 1992, (a) in cash terms and (b) at current prices. [106449]
Andy Burnham: The information requested is shown in the table for York hospitals NHS trust for 1998-99 to 2005-06, which are the earliest and latest years for which this information is available.
Figures given are for the total operating expenses of the trust in each year. It is not possible to provide figures excluding expenditure on services subsequently transferred to the primary care trust as this expenditure cannot be identified from the submitted returns.
| £000 | ||
| Cash terms | Real terms | |
| Source: Audited summarisation schedules of the York hospitals NHS trust 1998-99 to 2005-06. Treasury GDP deflator used to provide the real terms figures with 2005-06 as the baseline | ||
Education and Skills
Advertising
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what supplements on children’s issues have been published in the Guardian newspaper at the request of his Department in each of the last five years; and at what cost to the public purse. [105628]
Beverley Hughes: In 2006 the Department paid the Guardian newspaper £90,000 to run supplements in Education and Society Guardian as part of its umbrella communications strategy to support the integration of children’s services.
Allergies
Jon Cruddas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to protect pupils with nut or seed allergies who buy snacks from school tuck shops and vending machines. [104728]
Jim Knight: The decision to provide products containing nuts and the sale of nuts in vending machines is a matter for local decision making. This approach is endorsed by the School Food Trust, who have issued guidance, and the Food Standards Agency, who are working with the National Governors' Association to update their guidance to governors “Food Policy in Schools—A Strategic Framework for School Governors”.
Citizenship
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of high schools include citizenship as part of the curriculum. [105108]
Jim Knight: Citizenship is a statutory part of the national curriculum at key stages 3 and 4 for all secondary schools. It is for schools to decide how they deliver the statutory programmes of study for citizenship. Schools can consider a number of ways of providing citizenship which may include a combination of discrete provision, explicit opportunities in a range of other subjects, whole school and suspended timetable activities and pupils' involvement in the life of the school and the wider community.
College Fires
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many fires there have been in (a) further education colleges and (b) higher education institutions in each region in the last 10 years. [106640]
Angela E. Smith [holding answer 30 November 2006]: I have been asked to reply.
The available information covers fires attended by fire and rescue services occurring in further education establishments, these include the full range of colleges, institutions and universities.
| Fires in further education establishments 1996-2005 | ||||||||||
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | (1)2005 | |
| (1)Provisional Notes: 1. Excludes fires during periods of industrial action in 2002 and 2003. 2. Figures for 1996-2004 are based on sampled data grossed to fire and rescue service totals. Source: Fire and rescue service returns to the Department for Communities and Local Government | ||||||||||
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