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20 Mar 2007 : Column 865W—continued
NHS: Manpower
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the reasons are for delaying the publication of the NHS workforce census. [123139]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Information Centre for health and social care had planned to publish the workforce census in March 2007. It will now be published in April 2007.
This is because the reorganisation of primary care trusts (PCTs), which took place on 1 October 2006, has impacted on the collection process. Data have been provided by PCTs in different formats and this has required extensive validation (of the quality of data submitted), to ensure consistency with previous years. In many instances new staff within PCTs have been involved in this process, which has led to delays
In addition over 200 organisations have submitted workforce data through the new national payroll system, the electronic staff record (ESR). Additional data validation has been undertaken to ensure that in the first year of deriving census information from this source, it is of at least equivalent quality to that previously collected directly from trusts and PCTs.
The Information Centre for health and social care is working with the Department to review systems for collecting workforce information and looking at ways of building on the development of the ESR. When the ESR is fully rolled out across the national health service in 2008 this should enable comprehensive workforce data to be available more quickly and frequently.
NHS: Pay
Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on (a) employment of temporary staff and (b) local area weighting allowances by each hospital acute trust and foundation hospital trust in 2005-06. [126378]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information has been placed in the Library. This shows expenditure by each national health service trust on salaries and wages of non-NHS staff and medical and dental London weighting in 2005-06.
NHS: Public Relations
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much each NHS hospitals trust spent on public affairs support from private companies in the last 12 months. [127609]
Andy Burnham: The information requested is not held by the Department.
NHS: Secondments
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consideration primary care trusts are required to give to the possible effects of secondments of staff for training purposes on the provision of (a) front-line services and (b) numbers of available beds before approving those secondments. [122648]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Agreeing secondments is a local decision and will depend on both the financial and staff resource available to continue to deliver current service requirements. Properly managed secondments can deliver appropriate training and development needs for staff.
NHS: Training
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps she is taking to ensure that health authorities and trusts collect adequate data on the involvement of staff in work-based learning; [123403]
(2) what steps she is taking to ensure that rates of participation in work-based learning are consistent across the different grades of NHS staff. [123404]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This is a matter for local employers and strategic health authorities. Training needs for national health service staff are determined against local NHS priorities, through appraisal processes and training needs analyses. Employers have a duty to ensure staff have the appropriate education and training to deliver priorities and services.
Access to training courses or learning opportunities in the workplace is a local decision.
Nurses: Schools
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many school nurses were employed in each health region in England in each of the last three years; [124382]
(2) how many school nurses there are in each health region in England. [124891]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of school nurses employed in each health region is shown in the table. School nurses have only been separately identified robustly in the national health service workforce census since 2004.
Obesity: Children
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to encourage the NHS to provide fitness regimes for obese children; and how this will be funded. [127580]
Caroline Flint: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published guidance on the prevention, identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in adults and children in December 2006, which contained a series of recommendations across a wide range of sectors including the national health service. NICE recommend that obesity treatment and prevention interventions in the NHS should be long-term and must be multi-component rather than one-off activities. These programmes should include behaviour change strategies to increase people's physical activity levels or decrease inactivity, improve eating behaviour and the quality of the person’s diet and reduce energy intake.
Operating Theatres
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many operations were conducted in each operating theatre in England in each of the last five years; how many hours per week each theatre was in use in each year; and what the net cost per theatre hour used was in each year; [124110]
(2) how many operations were conducted in England in each of the last five years, broken down by strategic health authority; how many hours per week on average an operating theatre was in use in each authority in each year; and what the net cost per theatre hour used in each authority was in each year. [124390]
Andy Burnham:
Tables showing the numbers of procedures conducted in England in each of the last five years, by strategic health authority, have been
placed in the Library. The rest of the information requested is not available centrally.
Ophthalmology: Training
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what factors were taken into account in deciding not to provide continuing educational training for dispensing opticians in the review of general ophthalmic services. [126279]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The national health service provides a contribution to the cost of continuing education and training for professions whose income derives in part from providing NHS services. Under deregulatory changes approved by Parliament in 1986, the NHS provides optical vouchers to certain eligible groups to assist in buying glasses or contact lenses, but the dispensing of glasses is carried out on a private basis. The Department considers that these arrangements work well in promoting choice and access to services and that it would be anomalous to use public funds to make continuing education and training payments to health care professionals who do not provide services under contract to the NHS.
Paediatrics: Vetting
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many paediatricians working in hospitals in England have an up-to-date Criminal Records Bureau certificate clearing them to work with children. [122911]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not held centrally. It is the responsibility of individual employers to carry out Criminal Records Bureau checks when employing any staff working with children, including paediatricians, in order to satisfy themselves that they are safe to carry out this type of work. NHS Employers provides guidance to employers on this matter.
Paramedical Staff: Manpower
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many paramedics there were in each year since 2000; and what the projected numbers are in each year to 2010. [123263]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows the number of paramedics in the national health service in England since 2000.
It is for local planners with support from the workforce review team to determine their future requirement for paramedics to meet local service needs.
| NHS hospital and community health services: paramedic staff 2000-05 | |
| Paramedic | Headcount |
| Source: NHS non medical census | |
Patients: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of expenditure by her Department on (a) male and (b) female patients aged (i) 0 to 5, (ii) 5 to 9, (iii) 10 to 14, (iv) 15 to 20, (v) 21 to 25, (vi) 26 to 30, (vii) 31 to 40, (viii) 41 to 50, (ix) 51 to 60, (x) 61 to 70, (xi) 71 to 80 and (xii) over 80, excluding costs relating to maternity care and childbirth, in the latest year for which figures are available. [126049]
Andy Burnham: The table shows the breakdown by age and gender of total hospital and community health services (HCHS) expenditure for the year 2003-04, excluding costs relating to maternity care and childbirth.
The age groups from the programme budget differ to those requested.
2003-04 is the latest year this data is available. Due to a change in national programme budgeting categories from 2004-05 onwards, we no longer collect HCHS expenditure data broken down by age and gender.
| HCHS expenditure by age group and gender, 2003-04, millions | ||||||||
| Age group | 0-4 | 5-15 | 16-44 | 45-64 | 65-74 | 75-84 | 85+ | Total |
| Notes: 1. Figures in table may not sum due to rounding. 2. The total HCHS expenditure in 2003-04 was £38,151 million. The difference of £1,577 million is attributable to maternity care and childbirth. | ||||||||
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