Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 22 November (HL11744), what assessment they have made of whether local authorities are complying with guidelines to ensure that home care workers are paid the national living wage for travelling between appointments.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department has made no assessment itself. However, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs deals with complaints about underpayment of the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. It has worked with other agencies and departments to raise awareness of the rules and has undertaken targeted enforcement to ensure that workers are paid what they are legally owed.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) home care workers receive the National Living Wage, and (2) travel time between clients for such workers is treated as working time for the purpose of the National Living Wage.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The 2015 Spending Review settlement factored in the need for local authorities to increase fees paid to providers to cover the additional costs of paying the National Living Wage to their workers. The Government has continued to monitor and listen to the social care sector, and provided an additional £2 billion of new money to social care in March 2017 to manage a number of pressures including the National Living Wage.
In the guidance to the Care Act 2014 we have set out local government’s responsibility to facilitate local markets that offer a range of high quality services, underpinned by an effective workforce. Local authorities should assure themselves and have evidence that service providers remunerate staff with a view to retain an effective workforce. Remuneration must comply with national minimum wage and national living wage legislation and this includes remuneration for any time spent travelling between appointments.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many leg ulcer patients in England were in (1) higher and intermediate managerial, administrative, or professional occupations, (2) supervisory, clerical and junior managerial, administrative, or professional occupations, (3) skilled manual occupations, (4) semi-skilled and unskilled manual occupations, and (5) no occupation, in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The requested information is not centrally held by the Department. NHS Digital does not routinely collect any socio-economic or occupation-related data in association with patient episodes.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many leg ulcer patients in England were aged (1) 18 to 39 years, (2) 40 to 59 years, and (3) 60 years or older, in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many leg ulcer patients in England were (1) male, and (2) female, in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of people in England suffering from leg ulcers in England in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the annual cost to the NHS in England of leg ulcer patients undergoing superficial venous reflux treatment.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
No such assessment has been made as the relevant data is not held centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost to the NHS in England of leg ulcers in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
No such assessment has been made as the relevant data is not centrally held by the Department.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits to the NHS in England of early endovenous ablation of leg ulcers.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The results of the Early Venous Reflux Ablation (EVRA) study (2018) and the Effect of Surgery and Compression on Healing and Recurrence (ESCHAR) trial (2004) indicate that early superficial endovenous ablation improves healing of venous leg ulceration, reduces the risk of ulcer recurrence and is cost-effective.
Therefore, the results of the EVRA study and the ESCHAR trial will be incorporated into the National Wound Care Strategy Programme recommendations for care, as this will bring benefits to both patients and the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of patient leg ulcer care pathways developed by the Venous Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
NHS England is not aware of any assessments of the efficacy of patient leg ulcer care pathways developed by the Venous Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine.
There are plans to develop a national patient leg ulcer care pathway, and the Venous Forum has been invited to join the lower limb workstream to contribute to the development of this pathway.