HC Deb 29 March 2004 vol 419 cc1218-9W
Mr. Sanders

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what provisions are in place to increase the capacity of trained multidisciplinary teams to fulfil the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines on patient education for people with diabetes; [R][163667]

(2) how many primary care trusts provide structured diabetes education in line with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines published in May 2003; [R][163669]

(3) when he expects the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on patient education for people with diabetes to be implemented in full; [R][163671]

(4) what percentage of people with diabetes were invited to structured diabetes education sessions with a trained multidisciplinary team in the last 12 months; and what the average frequency was of the follow-up sessions. [R][163672]

Ms Rosie Winterton

In publishing its guidance on patient education in diabetes, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence acknowledged that successful implementation of structured educational programmes would depend on the availability of an appropriately trained workforce. Patient education models are currently being made available locally for use by the national health service. This should help primary care trusts to meet the planning and priorities framework target of having practice based registers and systematic treatment, including structured education, in place for people with diabetes by 2006.

The development of the diabetes workforce capacity is the responsibility of the long-term conditions care group workforce team. "Skills for Health" has been commissioned by the care group workforce team to develop competence frameworks for the diabetes workforce. This work includes identifying the competences needed to undertake structured education programmes for people with diabetes. Once complete, this work will be used in many different ways, for example, education commissioning, skills analysis and training needs analysis.

Information is not collected centrally on the local operation of patient education programmes.