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6 May 2009 : Column 205W—continued
Food: Labelling
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he expects the Community List referred to in Article 13.2 of the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation to be published by 31 January 2010; and if he will make a statement. [272981]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 23 April 2009, Official Report, column 833W.
Genito-urinary Medicine
Natascha Engel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which sexual health clinics have (a) applied for and (b) been granted the ‘You're Welcome’ quality mark. [272362]
Dawn Primarolo: The operating framework for the NHS in England 2009-10 (copies of which have already been placed in the Library) encourages local areas to implement ‘You're Welcome’ standards, which set out principles for all health care settings to ensure they are young people friendly.
The initial area of focus in the roll-out of ‘You're Welcome’ was to put in place a regionally based infrastructure to support primary care trusts and children's trusts to implement locally owned, sustainable arrangements for ‘You're Welcome’. The focus now is on promoting uptake in both national health service and non-NHS provision through a wide reaching dissemination programme which has been put in place across the nine regions. The regions are prioritising sexual and reproductive health services during 2009-10.
To date, 41 health services have already applied for ‘You're Welcome’ quality mark. Of these, 32 are sexual health services, 16 of which have been granted the quality mark which are:
ARC at Stowe;
Bpas Leigham Clinic;
Brook Brixton;
Brook Liverpool;
Brook Manchester;
Brook Milton Keynes;
Brook Oldham;
Carlton Street Centre for Sexual Health;
CHYPS Plus;
Market Street Health Centre;
North Ormsby Health Village Contraception and Sexual Health Service;
The Parallel;
Sex Sense at Paulsgrove Healthy Living Centre;
Streetwise Young Peoples Project;
Vauxhall Riverside Sexual Health Service; and
Victoria Clinic.
Health Services: Non-profit Making Associations
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the likely effect on future commissioning services in primary care trusts of the provision for health-care made by social enterprises. [272794]
Phil Hope: The Department has not made such an assessment.
National health service commissioning is focused upon improving the quality of care, personalisation and improving outcomes for individuals. Patient choice and increasing the plurality of providers are key to this.
Primary care trusts are currently developing their commissioning plans for community services, which includes considering future patterns of provision, including social enterprises.
Hospitals: Furniture
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what work his Department has undertaken with (a) the Design Council and (b) the national health service on the development of new furniture design for hospitals to reduce the incidence of health-care acquired infections in hospitals. [272837]
Ann Keen: In autumn 2007, the Department held workshops with around 500 national health service doctors, nurses and cleaning staff at which ideas were gathered about what kinds of technology might be used to further help combat health care-associated infections more effectively. From the 150 ideas generated, 10 were prioritised as showing the most promise and these have been subject to design and development programmes since that time. Among the 10 prioritised ideas are two items of furniture—a waste bin/locker and a new style commode. Working prototypes are currently subject to clinical trials at University College London Hospital.
Additionally, the Department commissioned the Design Council to deliver a competition in which designers joined forces with manufacturers to develop working prototypes of furniture for the bedside environment (patient chair, bedside storage and overbed table), a porter’s chair and a commode. The Design Council also worked with the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre to design innovations in a further five areas, one of which was a new style ‘intelligent’ patient bed mattress. These prototypes have now been launched and will be showcased over the next three weeks at seven NHS hospitals and then at a number of health care conferences through until the autumn.
Learning Disability: Social Services
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what role the Transforming Adult Social Care Programme Board will have in relation to adult social care for people with a learning disability; [272503]
(2) what steps he plans to take to monitor the work of the Transforming Adult Social Care Programme Board; [272504]
(3) what steps his Department plans to take to (a) monitor and (b) evaluate the (i) implementation and (ii) use of the Transforming Social Care grant within each local authority. [272505]
Phil Hope: The Transforming Adult Social Care Programme Board is a cross-sector body, which brings together the key partners responsible for oversight of delivery of all dimensions of “Putting People First” (a copy of which has already been placed in the Library) for all citizens, including people with learning disabilities. The Terms of Reference, current membership and agreed minutes of meetings are available at:
The Department has governance structures and performance management processes in place to monitor its work to deliver “Putting People First” through the Transforming Adult Social Care Board. Other partners are responsible for monitoring their own contributions to the programme.
The Department of Health does not directly monitor the use of the ring-fenced Social Care Reform Grant for each local authority. However we expect that the Care Quality Commission will do so, against the clear outcomes set out in the Local Authority Circular, LAC (DH)(2009)1, which can be found at:
A copy has been placed in the Library.
As partners on the Transforming Adult Social Care Programme Board, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association undertook to measure and report on progress in implementing “Putting People First” over the year 2008- 09. They are due to publish the report on 11 May.
Mental Health Services
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effects of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on funding for cognitive behavioural therapy on funding for fully-qualified psychologists. [272068]
Phil Hope: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations about effective treatments, after investigating the available evidence: it offers no guidance about funding.
The Government announced three years of funding, rising to £173 million in 2010-11, to train a new workforce in cognitive behavioural therapy to help the national health service put in place NICE guidance for treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.
Already some 800 trainees are in place and a further 1,700 will start this autumn. All these trainees are supervised by fully-trained psychologists in order to safeguard the quality of the therapy services they are delivering now and in the future.
Mentally Ill: Children
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many prescriptions of anti-psychotic drugs were issued to children aged (a) under 10 years and
(b) under 16 years (i) in each year since 1997 and (ii) in each primary care trust area in the last year for which figures are available; [272781]
(2) how many prescriptions for anti-depressants were issued to children aged (a) under 10 years and (b) under 16 years (i) in each year since 1997 and (ii) in each primary care trust area in the last year for which figures are available; [272783]
(3) how many prescriptions for drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder were issued to children aged (a) under 10 years and (b) under 16 years (i) in each year since 1997 and (ii) in each primary care trust area in the last year for which figures are available. [272784]
Dawn Primarolo: This information is not collected centrally.
NHS Treatment Centres: Private Sector
Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost of the payments made to independent sector treatment centres has been since their introduction; and what cost would have been incurred in payments under the tariff set for comparable NHS procedures. [272004]
Mr. Bradshaw: The total cost of the payments made to independent sector treatment centre providers up to 31 March 2009 is £1,215 million.
The Department does not hold information about what the total cost of the payments to independent sector treatment centre providers would have been under the tariff set for comparable national health services procedures.
NHS: Drugs
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedures the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence follows to determine the order of priority in which it makes appraisals of particular drugs. [272038]
Dawn Primarolo: Following final referral of technology appraisal topics by the Secretary of State for Health, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence sequences its work based on the date of referral of topics and their anticipated licensing timeframe.
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 18 March 2009, Official Report, column 1235W, on orphan drugs, when he expects to publish the Government's response to the consultation. [272039]
Dawn Primarolo: The joint Department of Health and National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) consultation on a revised topic selection process for technology appraisals will close on 22 May. The Department and NICE will publish information on action following the consultation later this year.
NHS: Information and Communications Technology
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's strategy for accelerating the delivery for the National Programme for IT. [272808]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department's strategy for accelerating delivery of the national programme is set out in the Treasury Minute on the second report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Cm 7568, laid before Parliament on 26 March 2009. A copy is available in the Library.
NHS: Pensions
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of pension payments made to NHS employees was who took early retirement between the date of their retirement and the date they reached the NHS pension scheme normal retirement age was in each of the last five years. [272671]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not available in the form requested. The total premature retirement costs including the cost of paying pensions and lump sum early, enhancements of lump sum and enhanced service after normal retirement age are set out in the following table.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance the NHS pension scheme has issued on the award of enhancements under the scheme to NHS staff who are members of the scheme and who (a) are made redundant, (b) take early retirement on grounds of ill health and (c) take early retirement on grounds other than those of ill health. [272672]
Ann Keen: The enhancements available to staff who retire early are set out in the scheme regulations and a booklet entitled “Notes for pensioners and their dependants” which provides general guidance about their pension and related issues for example the process for payment of retirement benefits. In addition, a booklet containing guidance about the scheme is provided to all national health service staff on entry into the service and is also available on the NHS pensions website. Copies have been placed in the Library.
The specific arrangements are as follows:
(a) Staff over minimum pension age who are made redundant can elect to use their redundancy payment to pay for their pension to be taken early without actuarial reduction. For staff in post in October 2006, transitional arrangements allowing some enhancements are also available until October 2011.
(b) Since April 2008, the NHS pension scheme has two tier ill-health retirement arrangements. Staff who for reasons of ill-health are permanently incapable of efficiently discharging the duties of their employment (the ‘tier 1 condition’) are eligible for early payment of pension without reduction. Staff who are permanently incapable of regular employment of like duration (the ‘tier 2 condition’) in addition to meeting the tier 1 condition are eligible for an enhancement of two thirds of pensionable service until their normal pension age.
(c) The other forms of early retirement available are voluntary early retirement where the member has their pension reduced actuarially and retirement in the interests of the service where the employer pays for the cost of the members retiring without a reduction for early payment of pension.
Organic Food
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the potential effects on public health of organic foods in the last 10 years. [272574]
Dawn Primarolo: The Food Standards Agency has advised that it has commissioned an independent systematic literature review to evaluate the evidence on nutrient content differences between organic and conventionally-produced foodstuffs and any associated health benefits. The review has just been completed and the results have been submitted by the researchers to a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The full review report will be made available at the same time as the summary results are published in the scientific press.
The agency continues to assess new research on organic foods as it is published.
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