Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the fees paid by local authority commissioners to private care home providers in each area of the country; and whether the fees paid are sufficient to cover the costs of care provision.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Local authorities have the autonomy and flexibility to determine the fee rates they pay care providers. Their decision on appropriate rates of care is based on local market conditions. The Department continues to support local authorities with their Care Act 2014 duties to ensure that their local market remains effective and able to meet people’s care needs.
We are committed to bringing forward a plan for social care to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and to find long term solutions for one of the biggest challenges we face as a society.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the fees paid by privately funded residents in care homes, relative to the fees paid by local authority funded residents in the same homes in the past three years.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Where individuals are not eligible for financial support, they make their own arrangements for care services and pay the fees. The fees are set out in a contract between the individual and the care provider.
We are committed to bringing forward a plan for social care to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and to find long term solutions for one of the biggest challenges we face as a society.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people they estimate have missed cancer treatment since March in (1) England and Wales, (2) Scotland, and (3) Northern Ireland; and what estimate they have made of the impact of this on future cancer mortality statistics.
Answered by Lord Bethell
In England, there have been no estimates made of this kind. The Government cannot comment for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland as this is a devolved matter.
The long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on service provision and outcomes will be widespread and complex to identify and evaluate.
Critical care services, including for heart disease and stroke, as well as urgent and essential cancer treatments have remained open and continued throughout the pandemic, and have not been interrupted. The data show that the timeliness and quality of care have been broadly equivalent to, or better than, pre-COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people likely to die during 2020 as a result of interruption to normal medical services, in particular (1) the failure to carry out cancer assessments or treatment, (2) individuals suffering stroke but not receiving timely treatment, and (3) individuals not receiving treatment for heart disease in normal timescales.
Answered by Lord Bethell
In England, there have been no estimates made of this kind. The Government cannot comment for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland as this is a devolved matter.
The long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on service provision and outcomes will be widespread and complex to identify and evaluate.
Critical care services, including for heart disease and stroke, as well as urgent and essential cancer treatments have remained open and continued throughout the pandemic, and have not been interrupted. The data show that the timeliness and quality of care have been broadly equivalent to, or better than, pre-COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Public Health England report stating that the largest number of people in critical care due to COVID-19 are aged between 50 and 70, whether they consider this age group to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England’s report found that COVID-19 diagnosis rates increased with age for both males and females. When compared to all-cause mortality in previous years, deaths from COVID-19 have a slightly older age distribution, particularly for males.
Among people with a positive test, those who were between 50-59 were nine times more likely to die, compared with those under 40. Also, people who were between 60-69 were 25 times more likely to die than those under 40.
These disparities exist after taking ethnicity, deprivation and region into account, but they do not account for the effect of comorbidities or occupation, which may explain some of the differences.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the vulnerability of people aged between 70 and 80 without underlying health conditions to the impact of COVID-19; and how this compares to the vulnerability of someone aged 40 with underlying health problems including (1) diabetes, (2) heart disease, or lung disease.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England (PHE) led a rapid review to better understand how a number of different factors can impact on how people are affected by COVID-19. This included an analysis of age, sex (male and female), deprivation, geography, ethnicity, and other factors, where surveillance data was available to PHE.
The review found that among people with a positive test, those who were 80 or older were 70 times more likely to die, compared with those under 40. These were the largest disparities found in this analysis and are consistent with what has been previously reported in the United Kingdom.
No comparisons have been made between the vulnerability of someone aged between 70 and 80 and someone aged 40 with underlying health problems to the impact of COVID-19.
Some analyses outlined in the review are provisional and will continue to be improved. Further work is planned to obtain, link and analyse data that will complement these analyses.
A copy of PHE’s report Disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19 is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have of the number of people discharged from NHS hospitals into care homes who had (1) not been tested, or (2) tested positive, for COVID-19. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
Information is not available in the format requested.
The attached table shows a count of the finished discharge episodes, with the number of diagnosis confirmed by test and diagnosis not confirmed by test for all discharges listed by destination for each month in 2020.
The data shows the number of completed episodes and not the number of people as some individuals may have been admitted and discharged on more than one occasion during the period.
The data is provisional and is subject to review.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of COVID-19 of the financial sustainability of (1) the for-profit care home sector, and (2) care homes operated by charities.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors the financial health of the largest and most difficult-to-replace adult social care providers through its Market Oversight Scheme. The scheme covers both commercial providers and charities. Under the scheme, the CQC has a duty to notify local authorities if they consider that a provider’s services are likely to be disrupted because of business failure. This allows local authorities time to step in and ensure that people continue to receive the services they need. As a minimum, all providers in the scheme are required to provide the CQC with financial information on a quarterly basis. However, where the CQC perceives a greater risk to continuity of care, more regular engagement is undertaken.
We recognise the pressures that all parts of the sector are facing, and we provided local authorities with £1.6 billion funding in March to help them deal with the immediate impacts of COVID-19. On top of this, on 18 April the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP) announced an additional £1.6 billion of funding to support local authorities delivering essential frontline services.
On 13 May we announced an additional £600 million for an Infection Control Fund for Adult Social Care. This funding is to support adult social care providers in England reduce the rate of transmission in and between care homes and to support workforce resilience.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the average weekly fees paid by local authorities to care homes run by (1) local authorities, and (2) private operators, for elderly (a) residential care, and (b) elderly nursing care.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Care and support is arranged on an open market where prices and fee rates are negotiated locally by commissioners for state funded clients, whilst individuals and their families do so for those who self-fund. The Government has no say in these individual negotiations, as the level of fees charged to people who fund their own care is a private contractual arrangement.
The Government has taken and continues to take steps to support adult social care providers and local authorities, including providing regular advice and guidance, and working with the sector on contingency and preparedness.
We recognise the pressures that all parts of the sector are facing, and we have announced £1.6 billion to help local authorities deal with the immediate impacts of COVID-19. On top of this, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an additional £1.6 billion of funding to support local authorities delivering essential frontline services.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the financial strength of the companies in charge of the majority of elderly care homes.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors the financial health of the largest and most difficult-to-replace adult social care providers through their Market Oversight Scheme. Under the scheme, they have a duty to notify local authorities if they consider that a provider’s services are likely to be disrupted because of business failure. This allows local authorities time to step in and ensure that people continue to receive the services they need. As a minimum, all providers in the Market Oversight Scheme are required to provide the CQC with financial information on a quarterly basis. However, where the CQC perceives a greater risk to continuity of care, more regular engagement is undertaken.
We recognise the pressures that all parts of the sector are facing, and we have provided councils with £1.6 billion funding in March to help local authorities deal with the immediate impacts of COVID-19. On top of this, on 18 April the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an additional £1.6 billion of funding to support local authorities delivering essential frontline services.