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 remind NHS trusts of their responsibilities to whistle-blowers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Speaking up is vital for ensuring patient safety and improving the quality of services and should be a routine part of business in the National Health Service. The NHS should support and welcome all staff to raise concerns wherever they spot them.
The Government has proactively encouraged NHS staff to raise concerns over recent years and provided support by establishing an independent National Guardian to help drive positive cultural change across the NHS so that speaking up becomes business as usual.
On 23 April the Care Quality Commission and the National Guardian issued a joint statement to providers of health and social care reminding them of the importance of speaking up. This followed a letter that the National Guardian sent to NHS trust chairs in March, which also highlighted the importance of staff having the freedom to speak up and the need to support Local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians at this time.
We will continue to encourage and support the rights of staff to raise concerns.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the NHS Long Term Plan intends to improve the quality of life for survivors of cancer.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Following cancer treatment, patients will move to a Personalised Stratified Follow-Up pathway that suits their needs and ensures they can get rapid access to clinical support if they are worried that their cancer may have recurred. This stratified follow-up approach is expected to be established in all trusts for breast cancer in 2019, for prostate and colorectal cancers in 2020 and for other cancers where clinically appropriate by 2023.
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.