Stephen Kinnock MP: speeches

Speeches

• 26 Nov 2024 · Suicide and Mental Health of Young People: Tatton · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Tatton (Esther McVey) for securing this debate and raising many important issues. I also thank her for sharing the tragic story of Olivia. My heart goes out to Olivia’s family and loved ones; it is a truly heartbreaking situation and process that they have gone through. The right hon. Lady made a number of important points about withdrawal from SSRI antidepressants. A number of those points are quite specific, and I do not have in specific responses my notes. With her leave, I would like to write to her with responses on those points. She made a point about the coroner’s advice, which contained a lot of useful counsel on how we might address and tackle the issues raised. I will certainly look at that in detail, and will happily take those matters forward with her. We have a shared interest in addressing the issue. If the system is not working and people who are on that antidepressant are not being supported with withdrawal, we need to look at that in detail. We need to tackle it—I share her views on that. I will turn to some more general points about the Government’s position on mental health. We have made suicide prevention and mental health a priority, especially for young people. Many of the issues raised today are symptomatic of an NHS that is broken. Looking at the figures, the challenges that face the NHS are truly sobering. About 50% of lifetime mental health conditions are established by the time an individual is 14 and 75% by the time they are 24. Evidence suggests that the prevalence of mental health conditions is rising among children and young people. In 2023, 20.3% of eight to 16-year-olds had a probable disorder, compared with 12.5% in 2017. Of course, the covid-19 pandemic exacerbated needs, with analysis showing that 1.5 million children and young people under the age of 18 could need new or increased mental health support following the pandemic. According to the Darzi review, 343,000 referrals for children and young people under the age of 18 are waiting for mental health services, including 109,000 referrals waiting for more than a year. Under the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board, as of the end of September 2024, 10% of children and young people still waiting for first contact with NHS-funded mental health services were waiting for more than 951 days, equating to 1,301 people. Half of those still waiting had been waiting for more than 300 days. There are 13,010 children and young people still waiting for first contact with NHS-funded mental health services. Until recently, there had been an upward trend in suicide rates for children and young people. For women between the ages of 10 and 24, the rate has nearly doubled since 2012, rising from 1.6 per 100,000 to 3.1 per 100,000 in 2023.

• 26 Nov 2024 · Suicide and Mental Health of Young People: Tatton · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for that important intervention. I am happy to meet her and the LEARN Network. The Government cannot do all this alone; we need to work in partnership with all sorts of different stakeholders, including universities and the higher education sector. We would support any partnership working that we can do. Until recently, there had been an upward trend in suicide rates for children and young people. For women between the ages of 10 and 24, the rate has almost doubled, but the trend for children and young people has flattened in the past year, despite overall increases in suicide. Although those rates are low compared with those for other age groups, children and young people are a priority group in our mission to tackle suicide. The Department is commissioning research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research to advance our understanding of why rates of suicide have been increasing in certain age groups. We are committed to reforming the NHS to ensure that we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health. It is unacceptable that too many children, young people and adults are not receiving the mental health care that they need. We know that waits for mental health services are far too long. We are determined to change that. That is why we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across children’s and adult mental health services. We will also introduce a specialist mental health professional in every school and roll out young futures hubs to provide timely mental health support to our children and young people. We are working with our colleagues at NHS England and the Department for Education as we plan delivery of those commitments. Furthermore, the Government are also committed to tackling suicide as one of the biggest killers in our country. The suicide prevention strategy proposes targeted support for priority groups such as children and young people. The Department for Education is reviewing the statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education, and the Secretary of State for Education is clear that children’s wellbeing should be at the heart of it. Some 79 voluntary, community or social enterprise organisations up and down the country have been allocated funding through the Department of Health and Social Care’s £10 million suicide prevention grant fund over the two years to March 2025. These organisations—from local and community-led through to national—deliver a broad and diverse range of activity that will prevent suicides and save lives. Early intervention on mental health issues is vital if we want to stop young people reaching crisis point. Schools and colleges play an important role in that early support, which is why we have committed to providing a mental health professional at every school. Mental health support teams help to meet the needs of children and young people in education settings; such teams, which are made up of mental health practitioners and education mental health specialists, are available in schools in Tatton. However, it is not enough to provide access to a mental health professional when young people are struggling. We want the education system to set young people up to thrive, and we know that schools and colleges can have a profound impact in promoting good mental health and wellbeing. Doing this well takes a holistic approach, drawing in many aspects of the school or college’s provision. Many schools are already doing that, and my Department is working alongside the Department for Education to understand how we can support such good practice across the sector, and across the length and breadth of our country. The opportunity mission will break the link between people’s background and their success. The mission will build opportunity for all by giving every child the best start in life: high-quality early education, early child health, home learning environments and family support. The mission will also support children to achieve and thrive, ensuring high school standards with a broad curriculum, excellent teachers and targeted interventions, an inclusive approach to special educational needs and disabilities, mental health support, access to arts, culture and sport, and youth services and provision. In our manifesto, the Government committed to rolling out young futures hubs. This national network is expected to bring together local services, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges, and, where appropriate, deliver universal youth provision. The hubs will provide open-access mental health support for children and young people in every community. We are concerned about the widespread availability of harmful material online, promoting content on eating disorders, suicide and self-harm, that can easily be accessed by people who may be young and/or vulnerable. We have been clear that the Government’s priority is the effective implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023, so that those who use social media—especially children—can benefit from its wide-ranging protections as soon in their lives as possible. Earlier this year, Ofcom concluded its consultations on the draft illegal content and child safety codes of practice. We expect the illegal content codes to be in effect by spring 2025, with the child safety codes following in the summer. I will turn to other aspects of our plans to improve mental health services. The Mental Health Bill, which was announced in the King’s Speech, will deliver the Government’s manifesto commitment to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983 by giving patients greater choice and autonomy and enhanced rights and support, and aims to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout their treatment. It is important to get the balance right to ensure people get the support and treatment they need when necessary for their protection and for that of others. I am pleased to say that the Bill has been introduced in the Lords and will be coming to the Commons in the new year. The Bill will make the Mental Health Act fit for the 21st century, redressing the balance of power from the system to the patient and ensuring that people with the most severe mental health conditions get better, more personalised care. It will limit the scope to detain people with a learning disability and autistic people under the Act unless they have a co-occurring mental health disorder that needs hospital treatment. I conclude by once again commending the right hon. Member for Tatton for securing the debate and colleagues from across the House, including the hon. Members for Maidstone and Malling (Helen Grant) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon), for sharing their insight on the vital issue of suicide prevention and mental health care for children and young people. I am committed to working with the right hon. Member for Tatton and her hon. Friend, the hon. Member for Maidstone and Malling, to take forward these issues, and I hope that we can, together—across the House—address this vital issue. Question put and agreed to.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  Obviously the golden hello scheme for rural areas is very important. We are pushing forward on that, and I am pleased to say that hundreds have expressed interest in it and appointments are starting on that basis. The hon. Gentleman is right about training places. As I have already mentioned, we are very open to establishments and institutions coming forward with proposals for that. We are living in a country where the biggest cause of hospital admission for five to nine-year-olds is having their rotten teeth removed. That is a truly Dickensian state of affairs, and it needs to be fixed as a priority.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  Responsibility for dental services in Scotland is of course a matter for the Scottish Government, but Governments across the UK work together to spread best practice and deliver on our common goals. The Scottish National party Government have an extra £1.5 billion this year, and £3.4 billion next year, through the Barnett formula. I hope that they will prioritise health, including dentistry, and undo some of the damage that they themselves have done to dentistry in Scotland.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has said, we have already met with the British Dental Association, and no issues are off the table. We absolutely need to look at orthodontists in the round as part of the contract negotiations, and we will certainly report back on that in due course.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  I am very pleased to hear about what my hon. Friend’s ICB is doing. Working with the dental sector, we will deliver measures to improve access, targeting areas that need it most. Those measures include 700,000 additional urgent appointments and reform of the dental contract. The golden hello scheme, which incentivises dentists to work in underserved areas, is under way across the country, and dentists are also being offered a new patient premium to treat new patients.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  After 14 years of Tory neglect and incompetence, NHS dentistry in England has been left in a parlous state. Tooth decay is the most common reason why children aged five to nine are admitted to hospital, and 28% of the country—13 million people—have an unmet need for dentistry. Rescuing NHS dentistry will not happen overnight. We will expand the provision of urgent dental appointments across the country, and we are working with the sector to reform the dental contract in order to increase access and incentivise more NHS care.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this vital issue. Prevention is of course always better than cure, so I am very proud of the fact that we are introducing supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds in the most deprived communities and where there is the most unmet need. We are also working to sort out the NHS contracts so we can ensure that children get the care they need.

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question. We are looking at provisional registration. As I also mentioned to his hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), we are very open to the idea of a dental training school at the University of East Anglia. We need to ensure that we push on the full spectrum of all these measures, because there is a crisis in NHS dentistry and we need to get on and fix it.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Care Sector: Staff Salaries · Hansard source

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  As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care pointed out, when we won the general election on 4 July, we inherited public finances in their worst state since the second world war. Through the Chancellor, we have taken responsible action to deal with those issues. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has also said that we are looking at the Budget in the round, and we will report on that in due course.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Care Sector: Staff Salaries · Hansard source

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  We took quick action on the Employment Rights Bill, which includes the fair pay agreement, within 100 days of taking office. The consultation process on the negotiating body can begin only once the Bill has become an Act. We are engaging widely with stakeholders, and I assure my hon. Friend that unions will play a central role in that process, but let us remember that, through the national living wage, we are giving the lowest-paid full-time care workers a pay increase of £1,400 per year.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Care Sector: Staff Salaries · Hansard source

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  I was proud that the Chancellor raised the salaries of hundreds of thousands of care workers in the Budget. Last month, the Government introduced legislation to deliver the first ever fair pay agreement for adult social care. While we were giving care workers a pay rise, the Leader of the Opposition was belittling their work as merely wiping bottoms. I gently say to the Conservative party that it is better to be wiping bottoms than talking out of them. This is an important issue, and I am dealing with ministerial colleagues on it.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  There will be 700,000 extra urgent appointments, golden hellos, and a prevention and supervised toothbrushing scheme for three to five-year-olds.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We have pledged to bring back the family doctor, and we have already invested an additional £82 million in the additional roles reimbursement scheme to recruit 1,000 more newly qualified GPs in 2024-25. We are also committed to fixing the front door of the NHS, for example through £100 million of capital funding that was announced in the Budget. We are fully aware of the pressures, and we will set out further details on funding allocations for next year in due course.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  NHS England currently accepts ICBs holding leases only as a last resort or by exception due to the significant capital required. While we know that is not the most effective use of ICB resources, it is an important safeguard. We are committed to fixing the front door of the NHS by supporting GPs and ICBs through, for example, the £100 million of capital funding announced at the Budget for GP estate upgrades.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Dental Training Places: East of England · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for that follow-up question, but he will recall that, when we met, I and my officials made it clear to him that the UEA has not yet submitted its bid for a dental school. In that meeting, we said: “Please go back to the UEA and encourage them to submit that bid. When they do, we will look at it very carefully.”

• 19 Nov 2024 · Dental Training Places: East of England · Hansard source

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  Fourteen years of Conservative neglect and incompetence have left huge swathes of the east of England as dental deserts. As part of our 10-year plan, we will be working with NHS England to assess the need for more dental trainees in areas such as the east of England where we know that many people are struggling to find an NHS dentist. I am aware of the University of East Anglia’s plans to open a dental school and I recently met MPs from the east of England, including the hon. Gentleman, to discuss that process. I encourage the UEA to continue with its bid for a new dental school.

• 19 Nov 2024 · Dental Training Places: East of England · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right: we will reform the dental contract to rebuild dentistry in the long term and to increase access to NHS dental care, with a shift to focusing on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists. We continue to meet representatives from the British Dental Association and other representatives of the sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Infant Formula Regulations · Hansard source

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  I thank and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Chris Webb) for securing this debate on such a vital matter. He is a true champion for his constituents, and he is rightly concerned about people and families in his constituency who are struggling with the cost of living. I am aware that his constituency experiences high levels of deprivation, which creates challenges for the people who live there. After 14 years of Tory neglect and incompetence, this Government are committed to improving the lives and health of everyone. However, as my hon. Friend will be all too aware, we have a significant challenge on our hands in transforming our health services so that they work better for the people who need them. When we came to office on 4 July, we made it clear that we would fix our broken NHS. We commissioned Lord Darzi, who published a report that laid bare the true extent of the challenges facing our health service, giving us the frank assessment we needed in order to face those problems honestly and to do the hard work required to fix them. That is why, in the Budget, we announced an additional £25.7 billion of health spending over this year and next. However, investment works only if it is coupled with reform. That is why we have launched our 10-year health plan, which will address the root causes and fix the foundations by investing in preventive care, expanding mental health services and modernising NHS infrastructure to radically reform the NHS based on three seismic shifts: from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital. Our health mission also aims to reduce the time people spend in ill health by tackling health inequalities and driving economic growth. My hon. Friend will be aware that children are at the centre of our health mission and that we are committed to raising the healthiest ever generation of children. Infant feeding is critical to a baby’s healthy growth and development. We are committed to giving every child the best start in life, and that includes helping families to access support to feed their baby. The family hubs and start for life programme is central to that. Through that programme, 75 local authorities across England are improving their infant feeding support for families, including breastfeeding support. Those services are helping parents to access face-to-face and virtual support whenever they need it, and in a location that suits them, be that in their home, their family hub or a hospital setting. We want to build on the actions that local areas are already taking through the programme, so that families can access the support they need when they need it to meet their infant feeding goals. Breastfeeding has significant benefits for mothers and babies, but breastfeeding rates in England remain low compared with those in other countries. Data shows that around 53% of babies were breastfed at six to eight weeks, but that that dropped significantly by six months. My hon. Friend will know that in response to concerns about breastfeeding internationally, the World Health Organisation instigated an international code to promote breastfeeding and restrict the inappropriate marketing of breast milk substitutes that can discourage breastfeeding. The UK Government are absolutely committed to implementing that code. Although breastfeeding has significant health benefits, we recognise that it is vital that families who cannot or choose not to breastfeed have access to infant formula that is both affordable and high quality. The price of infant formula has been brought back into the spotlight with the publication of the Competition and Markets Authority’s interim report last week on competition in the infant formula market. It highlighted the fact that the price of some infant formula has increased by more than 25% in recent years, and as my hon. Friend pointed out, parents and carers have had to bear the brunt of those price increases. The Government’s infant formula regulations do not set the price of infant formula, which is agreed by infant formula manufacturers and retailers. Instead, they ensure that parents and carers have access to the highest quality and safe infant formula. The regulations cover infant formula and follow-on formula, which covers the first 12 months of a baby’s life. They require all infant formulas to comply with robust nutritional and compositional standards, meaning that they meet all the nutritional needs of babies, regardless of price or brand. However, the regulations rightly restrict the inappropriate marketing and promotion of infant formula. That is because there is considerable evidence that advertising directly to the consumer influences people’s decision on how to feed their babies. My hon. Friend has raised questions about loyalty card points and vouchers from food banks or local authorities being used for purchasing infant formula. The regulations seek to restrict inappropriate marketing techniques that induce the sale of infant formula, including special sales or discounts, so as not to discourage breastfeeding. Loyalty card points on their own are not contentious within the infant formula regulations, and the regulations do not specifically mention them. I agree that consumers should be able to use their loyalty card points to achieve a saving on their shopping. However, my hon. Friend will be aware that numerous loyalty and reward card schemes are available, and they vary significantly between retailers. Some may offer special discounts beyond awarding loyalty points. Loyalty card points should not be used as an incentive or as a reward to purchase infant formula. There is unlikely to be a one-size-fits-all approach, and it is for businesses to ensure that their activities are in compliance with the regulations. My hon. Friend asked about food banks, and I wish to be clear that the regulations do not prohibit infant formula from being distributed via food banks, including where they may issue vouchers to families. Food banks set their own policies on whether to distribute infant formula. I recognise the important role that they play in supporting some of our most vulnerable families. We have published guidance to businesses on the regulations, and can provide further clarity on those issues where needed. My hon. Friend rightly mentioned the CMA’s report, and I wish to address that in more detail. The CMA looked at competition across the infant formula sector, including the regulatory framework, consumer behaviour and manufacturer behaviour, and it assessed the impact on market outcomes. It concluded that multiple factors are resulting in poor market outcomes for consumers, including the behaviour of infant formula manufacturers and retailers, and that those require a response beyond the regulations alone. The CMA has been clear that it recognises the public health importance of the regulations, and that they ensure that all infant formula is suitable for meeting the health and development needs of babies, regardless of price. However, it suggests that restrictions in the regulations on price promotions may be softening competition on prices, and it is also concerned about enforcement of the regulations. Furthermore, the CMA is concerned that parents and carers are not being provided with sufficient information to make well-informed choices, and that their choices are often made in vulnerable situations after giving birth in healthcare settings. In these circumstances, they are unable to make choices that best meet their needs and budgets. The CMA has other market-based concerns about infant formula being indirectly promoted by infant formula manufacturers via the marketing of follow-on formula and growing-up milks, and about how statements on products may influence parent and carer choices. To understand how the visibility of products online, in-store and in hospitals drives choices, the CMA commissioned qualitative research, which it published alongside its interim report. We will be carefully considering all the issues and options put forward by the CMA as it develops its final recommendations for Government early next year. I understand that many families are struggling to meet the cost of feeding their baby, and the Government are committed to helping families most in need to access support. The Budget announcement on extending the household support fund will help those facing financial hardship with the cost of essentials. The Government’s Healthy Start scheme promotes a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies and young children by providing funds that can be used to buy or be put towards the cost of infant formula, as well as fruit and vegetables, pulses and milk. My hon. Friend has suggested that the value of the Healthy Start scheme should be increased. He may be aware that in April 2021, the value of the scheme increased by 37%.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Infant Formula Regulations · Hansard source

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  When this Government came into office on 4 July, we inherited the worst public finances since the second world war. We were elected on the basis of a manifesto that stated we would return fiscal responsibility and discipline to the management of the British economy. All of that means that we have had to take some hard choices. I do not think that a single member of the parliamentary Labour party wants to have the two-child cap in place, but the reality is that the profound irresponsibility and recklessness of previous Conservative Governments has left us with no choice but to take some difficult decisions. I hope that as we start to instil fiscal responsibility and bring growth back into our economy, we will be in a position to look again at the public finances, but we have to take it one step at a time because of the catastrophic situation left to us by preceding Administrations. On the Healthy Start scheme, I add that pregnant women and children under four and over one each receive £4.25 a week, and children aged under one each receive £8.50 a week. I once again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South for raising this really important matter. I fully appreciate that there is no quick fix to reduce the prices of infant formula, which are set by manufacturers and retailers, but I have outlined the help available through Healthy Start for eligible families. I want to assure him that we are committed to addressing the concerns raised by the CMA so that the infant formula market delivers the better outcomes that parents deserve. Question put and agreed to.

• 12 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentistry: South-west · Hansard source

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  The first thing I will say is that I am not going to take any lectures from any Conservative Member about the state of our dental system. What brass neck we see from that party, both in the Chamber and in this place—lecturing us, given the disgraceful state of our NHS and the fact that the biggest cause of five to nine-year-olds going to hospital is to have their rotten teeth removed! I will not be taking any lectures on that from the Conservative party. Of course, I am more than happy to answer the hon. Lady’s detailed questions, many of which I feel I have already answered in my preceding comments. I will not take any more interventions from her because I need to finish shortly. Our 10-year plan will set out how we deliver these shifts to ensure the NHS is fit for the future. To develop the plan, we must have a meaningful conversation with the public and those who work in the health system. We are going to conduct a range of engagement activities, bringing in views from the public, the health and care workforce, national and local stakeholders, system leaders and parliamentarians. I urge hon. Members from across the House to please get involved in this consultation—the largest in the history of the NHS—at change.nhs.uk. I urge them to make their voices heard in their constituencies, through the deliberative events.

• 12 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentistry: South-west · Hansard source

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  I am slightly surprised to hear that. The presentation I received on the portal showed there was a clear channel through to having a more discursive engagement with the platform. I will take that feedback away and, through officials, will come back to the hon. Lady on that point. I thank the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth once again for bringing the issue of dentistry in the south-west to this debate. On 4 July, we inherited a profoundly challenging fiscal position, but I can assure him that we remain committed to tackling the immediate crisis facing NHS dentistry, and that we are taking steps to make delivery more efficient through long-term reform. To recap, we are committed to providing 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, delivering the golden hello scheme to recruit more dentists in areas of greatest need, bringing in preventive measures to improve our children’s oral health and negotiating long-term contract reforms to make NHS dentistry more attractive. Those steps will help tackle the place-based disparities commonly seen in dentistry, and ensure that everyone who needs to access NHS dentistry can get it, including in the south-west. Our NHS dentistry is broken after 14 years of Tory neglect and incompetence, but it is not beaten. In 1945, it fell to Clement Attlee’s Labour Government to create a health system for the 20th century. Now, 79 years later, it falls to this Government to clear up the mess we have inherited, to get NHS dentistry back on its feet and to build an NHS dentistry service fit for the 21st century. That is what we shall do.

• 12 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentistry: South-west · Hansard source

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  As the hon. Gentleman will understand, we are in a sequence: we have the Budget, then the complex negotiations around the spending review. We cannot engage in meaningful, formal discussions and negotiations until we are clear on what exactly the financial envelope is. We are working at pace on that. However, we have been meeting informally to sketch it out, so I would say that the scope of the negotiations is agreed. The formal negotiations will really start only once we have the detailed budget in place. We will listen to the sector and learn from the best practice to improve our workforce and deliver more care. For example, the integrated care boards in the south-west are applying their delegated powers to increase the availability of NHS dentistry across the region through other targeted recruitment and retention activities. That includes work on a regional level to attract new applicants through increased access to postgraduate bursaries, exploring the potential for apprenticeships and supporting international dental graduates. There are two dental schools in the south-west: Bristol Dental School, and Peninsula Dental School in Plymouth. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Bristol Dental School and seeing the excellent work that they are doing there, training the next generation of dental professionals, supporting NHS provision by treating local patients, and reaching underserved populations through outreach programmes. I also know that Peninsula Dental School, which first took on students in 2007, is doing the same for Plymouth and its surrounding areas. I would also like to pay tribute to Patricia Miller of NHS Dorset, Lesley Haig of the Health Sciences University and council leader Millie Earl for working so constructively with my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) on improving oral health in his constituency. A number of hon. Members have rightly highlighted the importance of prevention, and we are working around the clock to end the appalling tooth decay that is blighting our children. We will work with local authorities and the NHS to introduce supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds in our most deprived communities, getting them into healthy habits for life and protecting their teeth from decay. We will set out plans in due course, but it is clear that to maximise our return on investment, we need to be targeting those plans at children in the most disadvantaged communities. In addition to that scheme, the measures that we are taking to reduce sugar consumption will also have a positive effect on improving children’s oral health. Separate from the national schemes, I was pleased to note that NHS Devon integrated care board has committed £900,000 per annum for three years to support further cohorts of children for supervised toothbrushing, fluoride varnish and Open Wide Step Inside, with a new fluoride varnish scheme due to go live in September 2025. Open Wide Step Inside is a local scheme in which a dental outreach team, run by the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise, goes into schools to deliver 45-minute oral health education lessons across Devon and Cornwall. It is a truly commendable scheme. The steps we take in NHS dentistry will feed into the wider work we are doing to fix our broken NHS. We have committed to three strategic shifts: from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital. Our 10-year plan will set out how we deliver those shifts to ensure that the NHS is fit for the future.

• 12 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentistry: South-west · Hansard source

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  It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I congratulate the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) on securing this very important debate on NHS dentistry in the south-west. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has said that this Government will be honest about the problems facing the NHS and equally serious about tackling them. The truth is that we are very far from where we want and need to be. Lord Darzi’s report laid bare the true extent of the challenges facing our health service, including NHS dentistry. Even he, with his years of experience, was shocked by what he discovered. I pay tribute to all the hon. Members from across the House—too many to name in the short time available to me—for helping to highlight and elucidate their concerns. In many ways, those reflected what Lord Darzi set out, but we have also heard today some heartbreaking examples of the experiences our constituents are having. Colleagues across the House have brought those to life today. Lord Darzi’s report is vital because it gives us the frank assessment we needed to face the challenges honestly. Lord Darzi is clear that rescuing NHS dentistry will not happen overnight, but we will not wait to make improvements to the current system, to increase access and to incentivise the workforce to deliver more NHS care. We inherited a broken NHS dentistry system. It is truly shameful and nothing short of Dickensian that the most frequent reason for children of between five and nine years old to be admitted to hospital is to have their rotten teeth removed. That is, frankly, disgraceful. Those are the sort of challenges that we need to face. Some 13 million people in England have an unmet need for NHS dentistry. That is 28% of our country. It is absurd that people cannot access NHS dentistry when each year the budget is underspent—in recent years, that has been to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of care going undelivered. That is why we need to reform the dentistry contract. In NHS Devon integrated care board, which includes the constituency of the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth, 34% of adults were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months to March 2024, compared with an average of 40% in England. In 2023-24, there were 40 dentists per 100,000 of the population, whereas the national average, across all integrated care boards, was 50 in the same year. We acknowledge that there are areas of the country that are experiencing recruitment and retention issues—including many rural areas, where the challenges in accessing NHS dentistry are exacerbated. As Lord Darzi said, we have enough dentists and dental care professionals at an aggregated national level; the problem is that not enough of them are doing NHS work in the right parts of the country, where they are most needed. The mountain that we have to climb is daunting, but this Government are not daunted and we are working at pace. Take for example the golden hello scheme, which will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years. ICBs have already started to advertise those posts through that scheme. Nationally, there have been 624 expressions of interest and 292 of those have since been approved. Thirty-eight posts are now being advertised with the incentive payment included. Or take our rescue plan, which will help to get NHS dentistry back on its feet by providing 700,000 additional urgent appointments as rapidly as possible. We know that rescuing NHS dentistry means acknowledging that we need more dentists doing NHS work and we know from survey data that morale among NHS dentists is low. We must turn that around. This Government will do all we can to make NHS dentistry an attractive proposition. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions, but for years the NHS has been facing chronic workforce shortages and we have to be honest that bringing in the staff we need will take time. We are committed to reforming the dentistry contract to make NHS work more attractive, boost retention and deliver a shift to prevention. There are no perfect payment models, and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system, so that we deliver genuine improvements for patients and the profession. We are continuing to work with the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to deliver our shared ambition to improve access to treatment for NHS dental patients. The Secretary of State met with the BDA on his first day in office, and I engage with it regularly, including at a meeting earlier this month. I share the BDA’s desire for a timeline for negotiations, but we have had to wait for the Budget and the ensuing discussions with the Treasury to initiate and conclude those discussions.

• 5 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentistry: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  We are working at pace, and I will say more about that shortly. I share my hon. Friend’s reflections on the complete absence of the Conservatives. They made a complete mess of our public services, called an election and ran for the hills. On 4 July, we inherited a broken NHS dentistry system. It is a national scandal that tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admission for five to nine-year-olds in our country. It is truly shameful and nothing short of Dickensian. In the area served by the NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire integrated care board, which includes the constituency of the hon. Member for Chippenham, 33% of adults were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to March 2024. That compares to a 40% average across England. In 2023-24, there were 44 dentists per 100,000 of the population there, whereas the national average was 50. When we look at the problem in the round, it is not so much that we do not have enough dentists, but that not enough of them are doing NHS work, and they are not in the parts of the country that need them most. That challenge is compounded by the fact that some areas of the country are experiencing recruitment and retention issues, including many rural areas, where the challenges in accessing NHS dentistry are exacerbated. That of course includes Chippenham, where Hathaway dental practice has recently had a request granted to reduce its NHS activity, as the hon. Lady pointed out. I understand, thanks to a freedom of information request by the British Dental Association, that the practice had a £4.2 million underspend on its NHS contract. That is precisely the problem that hon. Members have pointed out. There is a quantum of funding, but the way in which it is structured makes private sector dentistry far more attractive than NHS dentistry. That is the root cause of the problem; we are alive to that issue. Overall, it is clear that we have a mountain to climb. It is a daunting challenge, but we are not daunted, and we are working at pace. The golden hello scheme, for example, will see up to 240 dentists receive payment of £20,000 to work for three years in one of the areas that needs them the most. Integrated care boards have already begun to advertise posts, as we have accelerated that process. In the ICB area of the hon. Member for Chippenham, there have been seven expressions of interest, five of which have been approved. Providers can now include incentive payments when they advertise vacant positions. Alongside that, we will deliver a rescue plan that gets NHS dentistry back on its feet. That will start with providing 700,000 additional urgent appointments as rapidly as possible, as set out in our manifesto. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions, but for years the NHS has faced chronic workforce shortages, so we have to be honest about the fact that bringing in the staff we need will take time.