On the 14th June 2017 Jackie was appointed as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Health. On World Mental Health Day 2018 Jackie was announced as the UK's first ever Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Minister.
As a Minister Jackie was responsible for: Mental Health, Suicide Prevention., Vulnerable Groups, Women's and Children's Health, Maternity Care, Inquiries, Patient Experience, Cosmetic Regulation and Blood, Transplant and Organ Donation.
As a Minister Jackie championed a range of causers from BAME organ donation to women's health to suicide prevention.
Some of Jackie's key achievements include:
- Publishing the Government’s first cross-government workplan for suicide prevention, setting out the actions being taken up to 2020 to carry out the suicide prevention strategy for England
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suicide-prevention-fourth-annual-report
- Leading Government support for new legislation to improve oversight of the use of force against patients in mental health units (also known as ‘Seni’s Law’)
- Driving development of the Women’s Mental Health Taskforce report on women’s mental health, which sets out strategic priorities for embedding gender and trauma-informed care throughout the health and care system
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-womens-mental-health-taskforce-report
- Leading the change to an opt-out system of consent for organ and tissue donation in England (this will become law on Friday)
- Championing the issue of BAME organ donation, working with NHSBT on a number of initiatives to encourage higher rates of organ donation from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds
- Establishing the first ever Women’s Health Taskforce in partnership with the Royal College for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/news/womens-health-taskforce-for-england-is-launched/
- Introduced a change in surrogacy legislation allowing single parents to apply for parental orders and obtain a UK birth certificate (previously only couples were eligible to apply)
- Seeing through changes to the infected blood support scheme in England, following public consultation, to make the scheme fairer, more generous and more streamlined
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/infected-blood-scheme-reform