Department of Health and Social Care

The new national arrangements with the independent sector will help the National Health Service to ensure all patients needing urgent care can be treated this winter, regardless of the impact of the Omicron variant. NHS England has estimated a minimum cost of between £75 million and £90 million per month whilst the ‘surge arrangements’ within the contract are not activated. This is equivalent to the value of elective activity delivered in January to March 2021. In the absence of surge activation, we do not expect there to be significant additional spending with the independent sector providers above normal Quarter 4 levels.

If surge arrangements are activated, NHS England has estimated the maximum cost to be £175 million per month. However, this is based on surge arrangements being activated nationally, which is considered unlikely.

On 23 December 2021 we published “Our Vision for the Women’s Health Strategy for England”. This sets out an ambitious and positive new agenda to improve the health and wellbeing of women across England and reduce disparities. We will publish the full Women’s Health Strategy later this year.

In addition, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities was established on 1 October 2021 to tackle the causes of ill-health and reduce disparities, including those which affect women.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Two elements of the study were subject to a tendering process. The tender for upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation received three applications and the tender for air quality power management received six applications.

The tenders did not specify a required date by which preliminary or full results must be provided and no applications were rejected on the basis of reporting timelines.

The Department has had no specific discussions on this issue.

Officials from the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Education first held discussions on 6 November 2020.

The trial was selected from an environmental innovations workshop in January 2021, where several technologies were presented by experts to an evaluation panel. The assessment was supported by advice from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies’ Environmental Modelling Group in their paper ‘Potential application of air cleaning devices and personal decontamination to manage transmission of COVID-19’ and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

We currently plan to deploy COVID-19 novel antivirals, including PF-07321332+ritonavir, co-packaged under the brand name Paxlovid, through the PANORAMIC national study. This will produce conclusive data on those would benefit most from antiviral treatments for COVID-19. We will provide an update in due course, including on whether any deployment outside the national study may take place.

The results of the trial will be published in due course, following the end of the school year.

We are reducing the levels of infection through pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines, supporting the National Health Service and social care to prevent transmission, identifying and isolating positive cases and providing advice to the public on how to protect themselves and others. On 8 December 2021, the Government introduced further measures including legally mandating face coverings and introducing mandatory vaccine-only COVID-19 status certification in certain settings.

We are reviewing the expansion of the service to record doses received overseas to include other vaccines, such as Sinopharm.

On 22 December 2021, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advised that children aged five to 11 years old in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed, should be offered two 10 microgram doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, with an interval of eight weeks between the first and second doses. Further advice on the potential merits of COVID-19 vaccination for other five to 11 year olds will be issued in due course, following consideration of additional data.

On 7 January 2022, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the priority for the COVID-19 booster programme remains to increase coverage of the first booster dose across the adult population, particularly in older adults and those in clinical risk groups. A second booster dose was not advised at this time as there is evidence of continued high vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation due to the Omicron variant following a first booster dose.

The JCVI continues to consider the latest available data and will review the booster programme, particularly in relation to the timing and value of any second booster doses for the most vulnerable.

Data will be reported based on lateral flow device (LFD) test results and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results from those still required to do so and those who will choose to take a PCR test. Contact tracing will be initiated based on LFD and PCR test results.

We continue to encourage people to report their LFD results through the usual channels. Negative test results enable us to understand the prevalence of COVID-19, while positive test results allow us to provide the correct advice to individuals affected and their close contacts to prevent onward transmission.

Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education and the Home Office met in May 2021 to discuss the implications of the Bill for child safeguarding. Officials are considering and mitigating any impacts of the Bill for multi-agency child safeguarding arrangements through regular discussions and will continue to do so throughout the passage of the Bill.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently co-ordinating an assessment of the viability of a 24-hour helpline to support those dependent on prescription medicines. Decisions to provide local withdrawal services should be made by clinical commissioning groups and integrated care systems with local authority public health partners, as they have responsibility for commissioning local services to meet the needs of their population.

There are no plans to undertake further investigation into the harms caused by long-term prescribing of benzodiazepines and z drugs as the risks associated with these drugs are well established in Public Health England’s review. However, consideration will be given to any new emerging evidence. We have no plans to introduce mandatory prescribing guidelines. It is a contractual and professional obligation to follow the guidance set out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), unless this does not meet a patient’s clinical needs. NICE recently consulted on draft guidance on safe prescribing and withdrawal management of medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms. The consultation closed on 2 December 2021 and the guidance is due to be published in April 2022.

The statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ designates accountable officers or chief nurses of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and their counterparts in local authorities and police forces as representatives of the three safeguarding partners in an area. This provides an equal and joint responsibility for local child safeguarding arrangements. All existing child safeguarding responsibilities for CCGs will transfer to the respective integrated care board. The guidance sets out clear expectations on appropriate delegation and this will continue to apply to safeguarding partners for health.

On 7 January 2022, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the priority for the COVID-19 booster programme remains to increase coverage of the first booster dose across the adult population, particularly in older adults and those in clinical risk groups. A second booster dose was not advised at this time, as there is evidence of continued high vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation due to the Omicron variant following a first booster dose. The JCVI continues to consider the latest available data and its review of the booster programme, particularly in relation to the timing and value of any second booster doses for the most vulnerable.

The latest data published the UK Health Safety Agency on 11 January 2022 shows that 54.8% of eligible adults in London and 58.4% of eligible adults in Barnet are vaccinated with a booster or third dose. Nearly two million doses were administered in London in December. In total, 3,818,256 people in London have now received a booster vaccination.

Many local child safeguarding partnerships already work across the different geographical footprints of local authorities, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and police forces. ‘Working together to safeguard children’ sets out the expectations for how partnerships should work across geographical boundaries, including on appropriate delegation where a senior leader is responsible for more than one partnership. All existing child safeguarding responsibilities for CCGs will transfer to the respective integrated care board, which must continue to have regard to the duties on safeguarding partners in ‘Working together to safeguard children’.

All existing child safeguarding responsibilities on clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will transfer to the respective integrated care board, which must continue to have regard to the duties on safeguarding partners set out in the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’.

NHS England has a responsibility to safeguard all users of its services, including children. It assures this responsibility, including the safeguarding duties currently with CCGs, through the NHS Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework. This is supported by the Safeguarding Commissioning Assurance Toolkit, its network of Regional Safeguarding Leads, and the designated and named professionals for safeguarding in every CCG, general practitioner practice and relevant health provider. This will continue to apply.

No such assessment has been made. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to the expansion of the National Health Service workforce, to achieve an additional 27,000 mental health posts by 2023/24. Health Education England (HEE) is leading a programme to develop and train the mental health workforce. HEE have commissioned approximately 6,000 training places in 2020/21, with a further 9,000 trainees in 2021/22. We have provided an additional £111 million in 2021/22 for the training and education of the NHS mental health workforce, based the workforce requirements in the NHS Long Term Plan.

In July 2021, the Department commissioned HEE to review long term strategic trends for the health and regulated social care workforce. This will ensure we have the right numbers of staff and the appropriate skills, values and behaviours.

We are investing £500 million over the next three years for training and development of social care staff. This will include a sector-wide Knowledge and Skills Framework, building on existing resources such as the Dementia Training Standards Framework. We will provide hundreds of thousands of training places and qualifications for the workforce, including those supporting individuals with Parkinson's and dementia.

We have confirmed funding of £5.4 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25 for adult social care reform. This includes over £3.6 billion to reform the social care charging system and enable all local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair rate for care and over £1.7 billion to institute major improvements across the social care system in England.

In addition, the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2022/2023 proposes an additional £3.5 billion to councils, an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4% in real terms. This will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services. As part of this settlement, local authorities will have access to over £1 billion of additional resource specifically for social care in 2022/23.

Legislation will be brought forward when parliamentary time allows.

We have considered Carers UK’s report, which highlights the need for good practice to be implemented consistently across the system. Since the publication of the report, we have worked with carers’ organisations to produce new hospital discharge guidance, which is due to be published in spring 2022. This will set out best practice for supporting carers during hospital discharge processes.

Our current guidance advises that the status and views of carers should be accounted for when planning a patient’s hospital discharge. This includes determining if carers are willing and able to provide care. All patients and where relevant, their carers, should be given information and advice when the patient is discharged, including who they can contact for further support.

We have no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to make caring by people under the age of 16 years old illegal. However, the Government believes that young people should be protected from inappropriate and excessive caring responsibilities. Adult and children’s services should take a whole family approach to the identification and support of young carers.

Changes to section 17 of The Children Act 1989 introduced via the Children and Families Act 2014, extended the right to a assessment for all young carers. Local authorities must carry out an assessment upon request or on the appearance of need. Such an assessment must consider whether it is appropriate or excessive for the young carer to provide care for the person in question, considering the young carer’s needs and wishes.

In addition, local authorities have a duty under the Care Act 2014 to produce a care and support plan and offer a personal budget following a needs assessment to ensure that the person being cared for and their carer’s needs are adequately met. Personal budgets can be used to provide alternative care arrangements should the person being cared for wish to do so.

We are investing £31 million in 2021/22 to support discharge and improve support in the community for autistic adults, children and for people with a learning disability. We are providing £3.5 million for local systems to identify children and young people on autism diagnosis waiting lists who might be at risk of crisis. We are also proposing to create new duties on commissioners to ensure there are adequate community-based services for autistic people and people with a learning disability.

The national recruitment campaign for adult social care launched on 3 November and will run until March 2022. Free rapid induction training and free and fast track Disclosure and Barring Service and barred list checks are also available to support fast onboarding of staff.

We have announced a total of £462.5 million in Workforce Recruitment and Retention Funds to support local authorities working with providers to further boost staffing and support existing care work through the winter.

On 24 December 2021, we announced social care workers, care assistants and home care workers will become eligible for the Health and Care visa for a 12 month period. These roles will also be added to the shortage occupations list.

The United Kingdom supports a timely, transparent, evidence-based and expert-led study into the origins of COVID-19. In May 2020, we co-sponsored the World Health Assembly’s resolution which agreed an investigation. We supported calls from the joint report from phase one of the World Health Organization-China study for release of further data by China to inform subsequent analyses. We continue to engage internationally to support a robust phase two of the investigation.

The Department’s impact assessment estimated that approximately 97,000 dentists and dental care professionals would be in scope of the COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Of these, 4% are estimated to remain unvaccinated at the end of the grace period and not medically exempt and would therefore no longer be deployable. The Government continues to encourage unvaccinated staff to make the positive choice to be vaccinated.

We continue to encourage all health workers to make the positive choice to take up the COVID-19 vaccine to help protect the people they care for, themselves and their colleagues. We have implemented a 12-week grace period, allowing time for workforce planning and for staff who are not yet vaccinated who may now wish to do so. We have set an enforcement date of 1 April 2022 to assist providers over the winter period and minimise workforce pressures. We are increasing opportunities to receive the vaccine through the booster programme such as walk-in and pop-up sites.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have written to all providers providing early guidance on vaccination as a condition of deployment to ensure smooth implementation and assist preparation and planning. Guidance has also been provided for managers on the use of one-to-one conversations with all unvaccinated National Health Service staff. We are also increasing engagement with targeted communities where uptake is lowest, including ethnic minority and faith networks to encourage healthcare workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Since the Government consulted on the policy in September, the latest data shows a net increase of over 75,000 NHS trust healthcare workers vaccinated with a first dose.

The publication of the National Health Service elective recovery delivery plan has been delayed as a result of the emergence of the Omicron variant. The Department continues to ensure the NHS is in the strongest position to recover elective services and tackle the backlog. The delivery plan will be published in due course.

So far, 3,161,950 million gowns supplied by Clandeboye Agencies Ltd have been provided to the National Health Service. The remaining stock of 22 million items is stored in our network.

We are not aware of any being resold or being put up for resale.

The Department has made no such assessment. NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with professional and regulatory bodies, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and patient organisations to support the safe and effective use of remote consultations in general practice. The Department works with NHS England and NHS Improvement, NHSX and local commissioners to monitor and assess the extent to which general practice teams have the equipment and skills to provide remote consultations.

Clinicians use their discretion to invite patients for a face-to-face consultation where this is deemed necessary.