Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department to ensure that the Statutory Guidance to the Domestic Abuse Act 2020 includes best practice on interventions in health to ensure that they are implemented consistently throughout (a) care commissioning group and (b) NHS trust areas.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly speaks to Cabinet colleagues.
As set out in the NHS Constitution for England, the National Health Service aspires to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, with the patient at the heart of everything the NHS does.
Best practice is already shared in a number of ways, including through events, guidance and resources such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence quality standards. Accountability and regulatory structures are also in place to ensure commissioned health services meet high standards of quality and safety.
In this case, the new Domestic Abuse Commissioner will help drive further consistency and better performance in the response to domestic abuse across all local areas and agencies.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ensure the adequacy of funding for (a) best practice and (b) evidence-based interventions throughout the health service for victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regularly speaks to Cabinet colleagues. Funding is agreed with HM Treasury and funding beyond 2020/21 will be addressed through the next Spending Review due later this year.
Taking a multi-agency approach is important to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Ministry of Justice will be developing a cross-Government victim funding strategy to ensure a strategic and joined-up approach to funding at both national and local level to maximise the impact of support we provide to victims and witnesses.
The Department will continue working with our partners to share best practice. The Pathfinder project developed a toolkit which is available for free online and aims to support development of a model health response to domestic abuse.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure the adequacy of funding for the effective provision of (a) services and (b) referrals in relation to incidences of violence against women and girls.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Health Service will see its day-to-day spending rise by £33.9 billion in cash terms by 2023-24, compared with 2018-2019, and the public health grant saw a real term increase to £3.279 billion in 2020/21. Responsibility for local decisions on funding services rest with the local areas to meet the needs of their population.
There are a wide range of healthcare services that victims and survivors of violence against women and girls may access. This includes sexual assault referral centres and female genital mutilation support clinics. The 47 sexual assault referral centres received £35 million in 2019/20, rising from £27 million in 2017/18.
We will continue to work across Government and agencies to ensure the effective provision of services to support victims and survivors and support multi-agency working and referrals.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will place in the Library a copy of (a) safeguarding documents and (b) risk assessments that were undertaken to ensure that the test, track, trace and isolate scheme would be safe for victims of domestic and interpersonal abuse, in order to ensure that scheme cannot be used to isolate victims of abuse maliciously.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We are assessing the impact of the Test and Trace service on an ongoing basis as the service develops, taking into account those in vulnerable groups such as victims of domestic violence and abuse. This assessment is being used to inform policy development and actions to mitigate any impacts identified. A package of mitigations has been put in place to reduce the impact self-isolation may have on those affected by domestic abuse, including Government funding to domestic abuse charities and the launch of a new public awareness campaign highlighting the support available.
We have prioritised security and privacy in all stages of the service’s development and are considering steps to further safeguard it from malicious use.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether cleaning staff working in hospitals and other healthcare settings are eligible for the death in service benefit announced on 27 April 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is in the process of setting up a life assurance scheme for frontline health and social care staff in England who contract COVID-19 during the course of their work.
The scheme is non-contributory and pays a £60,000 lump sum where staff die as a result of COVID-19 and had been recently working in frontline roles and locations where personal care is provided to individuals who have recently contracted COVID-19. The scheme is also available to staff whose duties require them to be present in a frontline National Health Service or social care setting where COVID-19 is present including cleaning staff.
The scheme covers all frontline staff who are employed by a statutory NHS organisation, or who work for organisations that support the delivery of NHS services or who work on an NHS contract.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that people who have recently been in contact with women at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre who have become infected with covid-19 will be tested for that disease.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that COVID-19 testing is only routinely being carried out on symptomatic patients arriving at hospital.
This is in line with NHS England and NHS Improvement national policy to utilise tests and laboratory capacity for urgent hospitalised patients. The Government has confirmed a major national effort to boost testing capacity. With a focus on ensuring the highest priority cases are tested first, officials are working to rapidly increase the number of tests that can be conducted by Public Health England and the National Health Service in laboratories, with the expected surge in capacity ready within four weeks.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to identify individuals in detention with underlying health conditions; and if he will take steps to ensure that all people in detention are screened to determine whether they have a relevant condition that makes them vulnerable during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement have released patient data to the Heads of Healthcare across the secure and detained estate and to centre directors. This will mean that this patient cohort can be identified and protectively isolated and managed across establishments in the event of a confirmed positive case and any potential unconfirmed cases.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what role he plans Genomics England to play in the NHS Genomic Medicine Service after the completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Genomics England is accountable to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care who is the sole shareholder. Following the completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project, Genomics England will continue to support NHS England with the development, establishment and successful operation of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, and in particular the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to sequence 500,000 whole genomes by 2023/24.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which organisation Genomics England is accountable to.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Genomics England is accountable to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care who is the sole shareholder. Following the completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project, Genomics England will continue to support NHS England with the development, establishment and successful operation of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, and in particular the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to sequence 500,000 whole genomes by 2023/24.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to evaluate the 100,000 Genomes Project.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As a Government Major Project, the 100,000 Genomes Project has been under regular review by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) which provides independent assurance of the most complex and strategically significant projects across Government. As part of this, the 100,000 Genomes Project has undergone several significant reviews which considered the Project’s delivery, requiring the collation of extensive documentation evidencing the progress of the Project and several days of interviews with key stakeholders. Conclusions of each review were shared across delivery partners to inform successful delivery of the Project.
The Department, Genomics England and NHS England recognised the importance in embedding robust testing, assessment and evaluation throughout the delivery of the Project to inform the introduction of whole genome sequencing in the National Health Service under the new Genomics Medicine Service.