Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital and community NHS trusts are rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Unwarranted variation in care can be due to a range of factors – it can be caused by cultural, clinical, and patient factors, and the specific causes will differ between specialisms, locations and care settings.
Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is a national programme designed to improve medical care within the National Health Service by reducing unwarranted variations. By tackling variations in the way services are delivered across the NHS, and by sharing best practice between trusts, GIRFT identifies changes that will help improve care and patient outcomes, as well as delivering efficiencies such as the reduction of unnecessary procedures and cost savings.
The GIRFT programme provides trusts with detailed data and information to allow organisations to understand any unwarranted variation in the care they provide, and guidance on how to improve their care in line with their peers. Further information is available at the following link:
http://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/
In addition, NHS Improvement produces a variety of resources designed at improving quality, and runs events for NHS staff where best practice is shared. Where a trust is under-performing, NHS Improvement can take regulatory action and put it into financial special measures or quality special measures.
The latest figures from the Care Quality Commission show that 13 acute NHS hospital trusts (specialist and non-specialist), and one community health NHS trust, are rated as outstanding (figures correct as at 3 September 2018).
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) share and (b) enforce best practice across the NHS.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Unwarranted variation in care can be due to a range of factors – it can be caused by cultural, clinical, and patient factors, and the specific causes will differ between specialisms, locations and care settings.
Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is a national programme designed to improve medical care within the National Health Service by reducing unwarranted variations. By tackling variations in the way services are delivered across the NHS, and by sharing best practice between trusts, GIRFT identifies changes that will help improve care and patient outcomes, as well as delivering efficiencies such as the reduction of unnecessary procedures and cost savings.
The GIRFT programme provides trusts with detailed data and information to allow organisations to understand any unwarranted variation in the care they provide, and guidance on how to improve their care in line with their peers. Further information is available at the following link:
http://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/
In addition, NHS Improvement produces a variety of resources designed at improving quality, and runs events for NHS staff where best practice is shared. Where a trust is under-performing, NHS Improvement can take regulatory action and put it into financial special measures or quality special measures.
The latest figures from the Care Quality Commission show that 13 acute NHS hospital trusts (specialist and non-specialist), and one community health NHS trust, are rated as outstanding (figures correct as at 3 September 2018).
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the sharing of data across health and social care.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is committed to championing the safe use of data, enabling data to flow in a lawful, secure and appropriate way to improve outcomes for patients.
Sharing data offers immense promise for improving the National Health Service and social care system, as well as benefitting individuals through unlocking new treatments and medical breakthroughs and driving up quality and safe care that improves outcomes and lives.
On 25 May 2018 the Government launched the new national data opt-out which gives people the choice of how their confidential patient information will be used beyond their direct care.
NHS England has chosen five initial areas to become Local Health and Care Record Exemplars. These exemplars will support delivery of efficient and effective individual care. They will also provide a platform to explore the potential for the use of individual data – in an anonymised form – to support other functions, such as population health management and research.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on improving the social care interface between the NHS and local authorities.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We know that people need health, social care and other public services to work seamlessly together to deliver better quality care. That is why in 2013 we announced the Better Care Fund (BCF), implemented from 2015, which allows local authorities and clinical commissioning groups to pool budgets for the purposes of integrated care. The Fund has incentivised collaborative working in local areas, helping people to live independently in their communities for as long as possible. In 2016/17 85% of areas agreed or strongly agreed that the delivery of their BCF plan had a positive impact on integration locally.
The Government has already taken significant action to help reduce delayed transfers of care (DToC), including providing an additional £2 billion of funding for social care, setting expectations locally for reductions in DToC and asking the Care Quality Commission to undertake a series of local system reviews to evaluate the boundary between health and social care’s functionality, the findings of which have recently been published. Since February last year, more than 1,600 beds per day have been freed up nationally by reducing National Health Service and social care delays.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the current number of vacancies in the (a) health and (b) social care sectors.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The Department does not hold the information requested.
NHS Improvement has published its quarterly performance report of the National Health Service provider sector since Quarter 1 of 2017/18, this contains an estimate of the number of vacancies. The latest publication for Quarter 4 states there are 92,694 full time equivalent (FTE) vacancies in the NHS provider workforce as at March 2018.
The latest NHS Improvement vacancy figures are available at the following link:
www.improvement.nhs.uk/resources/quarterly-performance-nhs-provider-sector-quarter-4-201718/
Skills for Care state that there are approximately 90,000 vacancies in the social care sector and the latest figures can be found on the following link:
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to make a decision on backdated sleep-in payments.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government recognises the pressure that sleep-ins back pay liabilities are placing on providers of social care. Any decisions required will be made in due course, ahead of this the Government is exploring options to minimise any impact on the sector.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received from charities on the potential effect of backdated sleep-in shift payments.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department regularly receives correspondence regarding the effect of backdated sleep-in liabilities, including from Learning Disability Voices and the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, which represent providers of social care including charitable providers.
The Department has been regularly engaging with representatives from the sleep-ins care sector. My hon. Friend the then Minister for Care and Mental Health (Jackie Doyle-Price) and my hon. Friend the then Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility (Margot James MP) met with Learning Disability Voices on 20 July 2017. I intend to meet with Learning Disability voices soon to discuss their concerns.
Officials often meet with representatives of charities to discuss the historic liabilities relating to non-payment of the National Minimum Wage for sleep-in shifts.
The Government recognises the pressure that sleep-ins liabilities are placing on the social care sector and is exploring options to minimise any impact on the sector.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received from charities on the potential effect of backdated sleep-in shift payments.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department regularly receives correspondence regarding the effect of backdated sleep-in liabilities, including from Learning Disability Voices and the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, which represent providers of social care including charitable providers.
The Department has been regularly engaging with representatives from the sleep-ins care sector. My hon. Friend the then Minister for Care and Mental Health (Jackie Doyle-Price) and my hon. Friend the then Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility (Margot James MP) met with Learning Disability Voices on 20 July 2017. I intend to meet with Learning Disability voices soon to discuss their concerns.
Officials often meet with representatives of charities to discuss the historic liabilities relating to non-payment of the National Minimum Wage for sleep-in shifts.
The Government recognises the pressure that sleep-ins liabilities are placing on the social care sector and is exploring options to minimise any impact on the sector.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress is being made on the joining up of the Health and Care systems in West Sussex.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Like all local areas, West Sussex local authorities and clinical commissioning groups have pooled budgets under the Better Care Fund (BCF) for the purposes of integrated care, and developed BCF plans according to their local needs. All local areas, including West Sussex, have approved BCF plans in place for the current BCF round (2017/18 and 2018/19).
The BCF has incentivised collaborative working in local areas. West Sussex, like many other local areas, voluntarily pooled more BCF funds than required. Their local health and care leaders also indicated that the overall delivery of the BCF has improved joint working and integration of health and social care in their area.
The National Health Service and local authorities in Sussex and East Surrey are also in the process of developing their Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, which is committed to closer joint working between health and social care.