The General Practice Forward View (GPFV), published by NHS England in April 2016, listed 10 High Impact Actions that help general practitioner practices to release time for care and provide more accessible and innovative care for their patients which includes social prescribing.

Social prescribing commonly addresses needs relating to social isolation, long term mental health issues and other personal challenges are not best addressed through medical treatment.

The GPFV implementation programme is continuing to gather evidence about successful ways to use social prescribing. Evidence to date indicates that both clinicians and patients welcome this approach, and interest among practices is growing steadily.

It is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure that their staff are appropriately trained and competent to fulfil the responsibilities of the role. This includes ensuring that their knowledge and skills are kept up to date.

HIV would be covered in infection control which is part of the Care certificate and is included in units within social care diplomas in terms of a good practice for general infection control.

Introduction of the Care Certificate for new healthcare assistants and social care support workers from 1 April 2015, is introducing specific standards for the training of new care workers. By working to achieve the Care Certificate, care support workers will develop the required behaviours, competencies and skills to enable them to provide high quality compassionate care.

Following the announcement of the General Election on 8 June, decisions on the future policy for adult social care will be taken by the new Government.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 cover the fundamental standards, the standards below which care must never fall. These regulations also set out that care home providers should enable a resident to see their family and friends if the resident wants to. Failure to comply with some of the fundamental standards is an offence.

As part of the work across adult social care to develop a framework for improving the quality of adult social care, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are developing the information collected from care providers. The CQC has shared its intention to extend the information it can already request from providers to include information about restrictions of visiting rights.

Information on the average waiting time for general practitioner (GP) appointments at local and national level is not collected or held centrally.

The GP Patient Survey, published by NHS England, asks respondents across England how long it took for them to see a GP or a nurse after contacting their practice. The full set of survey releases can be found here:

https://gp-patient.co.uk/surveys-and-reports

According to the latest release, published in July 2016:

- Almost two in five patients (37.6%) said that they were able to see or speak to someone on the same day as initially contacting the surgery,

- One in ten (10.7%) saw someone on the next working day,

- Three in ten patients (29.3%) saw or spoke to someone a few days later,

- 18.6% waited a week or more to see or speak to someone.

This does not take account of circumstances where patients express a preference to pre-book an appointment for a later date.

The Government is committed to improving access to general practice. By 2020, everyone will have access to routine evening and weekend appointments.

Information on how much funding will be allocated to dementia services in Southampton over the next five years is not available centrally.

NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which commission services on behalf of their local populations. It is for CCGs to decide how best to use the funding allocated to them in line with local healthcare needs and priorities.

Additionally, people with a diagnosis of dementia may also qualify for social care support. Eligibility for such support is based on the care needs of the individual concerned, and not by a diagnosis or having a particular condition.

Following the announcement of the General Election on 8 June, decisions on the future policy for adult social care will be taken by the new Government.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 cover the fundamental standards, the standards below which care must never fall. These regulations also set out that care home providers should enable a resident to see their family and friends if the resident wants to. Failure to comply with some of the fundamental standards is an offence.

As part of the work across adult social care to develop a framework for improving the quality of adult social care, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are developing the information collected from care providers. The CQC has shared its intention to extend the information it can already request from providers to include information about restrictions of visiting rights.

The two-week wait standard for non-urgent referral for breast symptoms has not been removed. In February 2017, 93.8% of people referred by a general practitioner for investigation of breast symptoms were seen by a specialist within two weeks.

The additional £325 million announced by the Chancellor at the spring Budget is for use solely by Sustainability and Transformation Plans area capital bid projects. These funds are subject to the usual assurance processes by NHS England and Her Majesty’s Treasury.

Information on local areas’ use of external support is not held centrally. It is for each partner within every Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) area to decide where they may need support or advice from external organisations.

All partners within each STP area need to be disciplined about keeping costs as low as possible as they work to alleviate pressures on the National Health Service, and improve patient care.

The Department and NHS England have not commissioned external support to provide advice on STPs.

We have made no recent assessment of the effectiveness of the Strategic Projects team, which was disbanded in July 2016.

We will carefully consider the recommendations of the Lords Select Committee on the Long-term Sustainability of the National Health Service. The Government will set out its formal response in due course.

Working with partner organisations on the National Cancer Transformation Board, including the Department, Health Education England will publish a cancer workforce plan later this year which will set out the future cancer workforce requirements for the National Health Service and what can be done to achieve them.

The Department does not have this information. Each Freedom of Information request could typically involve a variety of staff from our Call Centre, Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries team, the relevant policy team and a senior civil servant.

As part of the exit negotiations the Government will discuss with the European Union and Member States how best to continue cooperation in the field of medicines regulation in the best interests of both the United Kingdom and the EU. It would not be appropriate to pre-judge the outcome of the negotiations.

The Government has committed to an extra 5,000 doctors in general practice by 2020.

NHS England and Health Education England are working together with the profession to increase the general practitioner (GP) workforce. This includes measures to boost recruitment into general practice, encourage GPs to return to practice, and address the reasons why GPs are considering leaving the profession.

Health Education England has implemented a range of improvements to increase the flexibility of the GP recruitment processes and enable maximum recruitment into GP speciality. Health Education England reports that 3,019 new starters were recruited to GP training posts in 2016. This represents the highest number of GP trainees the National Health Service has ever recruited to speciality training in general practice.

In October 2016, NHS England announced a package of improvements to the GP Induction and Refresher Scheme to make it easier and quicker for qualified doctors to return to general practice. This is supplemented by a campaign to encourage doctors to return. NHS England is also starting to approve local schemes to bring in suitably qualified and experienced doctors from overseas.

NHS England has announced the launch of the GP Career Plus Scheme in 2017 to support the retention of doctors. This tests a range of ways to offer flexibility and support for experienced GPs at risk of leaving general practice. This is in addition to the GP Retention Scheme which offers funding to support doctors who can only work a limited number of sessions in general practice.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health regularly meets with clinical bodies to discuss a wide range of issues including the diagnosis and treatment of people with motor neurone disease.

The Staffordshire Cancer and End of Life Programme advises that the costs for both the cancer and end of life procurements over a three year period up to October 2016 equates to £848,000. This has been funded by Cannock Chase, Stafford and Surrounds, North Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups. The cost to each clinical commissioning group over the three years is circa £200,000 which is £65,000 per annum. The four clinical commissioning groups’ total commissioning budget is circa £800 million per annum.

The Department is working on ensuring the best outcome for the health and social care system. All policy teams within the Department are involved with this work and assessing the implications of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union on their area. This includes working with NHS England and other arm’s length bodies.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister has instructed all departments to identify potential opportunities that will arise in their areas from EU Exit. The Government is united in its ambition to deliver a successful withdrawal from the EU and a new relationship with Europe, and departments will work together to deliver this.

There are two Cancer Alliances across the Frimley Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprint. Representatives of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan are included in the membership of each newly formed Cancer Alliance Board, which give strategic direction on behalf of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan and receive assurance and advice on priority setting and delivery of cancer services.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care. All providers of regulated activities, including National Health Service and independent providers, have to register with the CQC and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. The fundamental standards describe the basic requirements that providers should always meet, and outline the outcomes that services users should always expect.

The CQC inspects providers against the fundamental standards and publishes the results on its website to help people choose care.

The CQC has provided the following information:

Number of Care Homes with an Overall Rating of Inadequate or Requires Improvement Published Between 1 October 2014 and 31 March 2017

Source: CQC database as at 3 April 2017

Notes: Some Nursing Homes or Residential Homes may have received two or more overall ratings since 1 October 2014. The above figures show the number of ratings published and include care homes which are no longer active. The above figures should not be used as an indication of total number of care homes currently rated Requires Improvement and Inadequate. The CQC began rating Adult Social Care providers in October 2014.