Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps are they taking (1) to increase the carer workforce, and (2) to reduce staff turnover rates in the sector.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are promoting adult social care careers through a national recruitment campaign, which launched on 2 November. We are also providing resources and practical toolkits for care providers to attract, train and retain care staff, including the Workforce Development Fund.
We are making available up to £2.8 billion of additional funding for social care in 23-24 and £4.7 billion in 24-25 to support adult social care and discharge - the biggest funding increase in history.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement on 17 November, what proportion of the £2.8bn funding increase for the social care sector will go towards supporting carer services and workers.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is continuing to finalise the conditions of this funding and further information will be issued to local authorities in due course.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve mental health (1) services, and (2) access, across England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24 and support a further two million people to access National Health Service-funded mental health services. As announced in ‘Our plan for patients’, we will continue to increase the availability of mental health support for adults, children and young people.
We are also addressing disparities in mental health and wellbeing outcomes in groups which experience worse outcomes than the general population. In response to the ‘Mental health and wellbeing plan: discussion paper and call for evidence’, we received submissions from 5,273 respondents in England. We are currently considering these responses and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mitigate the impact of the increased cost of living on the NHS ahead of this winter.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is mitigating the potential public health impacts of the increased cost of living on the National Health Service, such as the effect of cold homes. The Government has announced unprecedented support to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs until April 2023. In addition, we have allocated £15 billion for the most vulnerable households.
As announced in ‘Our plan for patients’, we are addressing the immediate priorities for the NHS in winter 2022/23, through improving ambulance services and response times; creating additional capacity in hospitals; reducing the backlog in elective services and eliminating long waiting times for treatment; improving discharge from hospitals and reforming social care; and ensuring patients can access primary care and dental services.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which provisions contained in the Carers and Disabled Children’s Act 2000 have been incorporated in the Health and Care Act 2022; and which provisions have been omitted.
Answered by Lord Kamall
No provisions from the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 have been incorporated into the Health and Care Act 2022 since the 2000 Act was repealed in 2016. However, Section 25 of the Health and Care Act 2022 makes new provisions in the National Health Service Act 2006 to include a duty for integrated care boards (ICBs) to involve carers when making relevant decisions about commissioning arrangements and promote the involvement of carers in decisions which relate to the care and treatment of the person for whom they care. Section 91 of the Health and Care Act 2022 also replaces section 74 of the Care Act 2014 with a new duty on National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts to consider how to involve an adult patient and their carer, including young carers, in discharge planning, in circumstances where the patient is likely to require care and support following discharge from hospital.
The Health and Care Act 2022 also transfers the duties relating to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from clinical commissioning groups to ICBs and confers a duty on ICBs to have regard to the SEND Code of Practice.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support families, particularly those on low incomes, to meet the continued guidance to test for COVID-19 before visiting care homes.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Most visitors to care homes will no longer need to test before entering a care setting. Visitors are asked to take necessary precautions to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, in line with general population guidance. There are a small number of residents who need support with personal care from a visitor with whom they have a close relationship. These visitors may be asked to test before entering, up to twice weekly if visiting more than twice, with free lateral flow device tests available.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that over 570,000 women in the UK are currently waiting to access gynaecology services; and what steps they are taking to address gynaecology waiting lists in England.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The latest available data shows that as of January 2022, there were 456,938 women on National Health Service gynaecology waiting lists in England.
To address the backlog in waiting lists, including in gynaecology, we are investing more than £8 billion over the next three years, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available to increase elective activity.
This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures and 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 compared to pre-pandemic levels, including in gynaecology services.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the consequences will be for frontline NHS staff who refuse to get vaccinated by 1 April 2022.
Answered by Lord Kamall
We continue to encourage all National Health Service staff to become vaccinated to help protect themselves, their colleagues and the people they care for. Over 92% of NHS staff have now done so.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment)(Coronavirus)(No.2) Regulations set out that a person who is unvaccinated again COVID-19 must not be deployed in the provision of Care Quality Commission-regulated activity subject to certain conditions. In instances where staff choose not to be vaccinated there may be an option, on a case by case basis, to move into a non-patient facing role.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of specialist homeless health services across the NHS; and what plans they have to commission more of these services.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Most specialist homeless health services are commissioned locally which enables local areas to tailor services to the needs of their population. The National Health Service committed up to £30 million from 2019 to 2024 through the NHS Long Term Plan to establish new specialist mental health provision to improve the health of homeless people. Additionally, the we have provided £16 million for specialist out of hospital care services with support from discharge and beyond.
Asked by: Lord Pendry (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they had with (1) carers’ unions, and (2) other bodies representing carers, before taking the decision to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for those working as carers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department consulted on making vaccination a condition of deployment in older adult care homes from 14 April to 26 May 2021 and received more than 13,500 consultation responses. The Department also conducted extensive engagement, including meeting with organisations representing paid and unpaid carers, and with individuals with lived experience of care. These discussions have formed a crucial part of our policy development.
Regulations were laid on 22 June to make vaccination a condition of entry in all Care Quality Commission-regulated care homes. Exemptions apply to service users and their friends or relatives; those under 18 years old; those providing emergency assistance or urgent maintenance work; those visiting service users who are dying or experiencing bereavement; and individuals who should not be vaccinated for clinical reasons.