Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will waive the cost of covid-19 tests on compassionate grounds for people travelling internationally for (a) funerals, (b) caring duties and (c) medical reasons.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 ensure that his Department implements an increase in annual social care funding of £3.9 billion by 2023–24 to meet demographic changes and planned increases in the National Living Wage.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are providing councils with access to over £1 billion of additional funding for social care in 2021-22 on top of the significant support provided over the last year to support the sector to deal with COVID-19.This funding is designed to ensure key pressures are met, including demographic changes and increases in the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage. Funding decisions on social care beyond 2021-22 will be decided at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
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 ensure that local authorities meet their duties under the Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014 to provide support to young carers.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the COVID-19 outbreak adult social care providers and services should still be maintaining their responsibilities under the Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014 to ensure young carers are identified and referred to appropriate support if needed.
The Government has published guidance for both schools and local authorities on how best to support to families and protect vulnerable children during COVID-19. This is available on GOV. UK. Local authority duties to assess the needs of young carers, under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, are unchanged.
The total number of young carers in England having received needs assessments in the last 12-month period is not available. However, as identified in the Characteristics of Children in Need: 2018 to 2019 statistics, there were 16,520 episodes of need assessments during the year ending 31 March 2019 where being a young carer was identified.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young carers in England have received needs assessments in the last 12 month period for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the COVID-19 outbreak adult social care providers and services should still be maintaining their responsibilities under the Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014 to ensure young carers are identified and referred to appropriate support if needed.
The Government has published guidance for both schools and local authorities on how best to support to families and protect vulnerable children during COVID-19. This is available on GOV. UK. Local authority duties to assess the needs of young carers, under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, are unchanged.
The total number of young carers in England having received needs assessments in the last 12-month period is not available. However, as identified in the Characteristics of Children in Need: 2018 to 2019 statistics, there were 16,520 episodes of need assessments during the year ending 31 March 2019 where being a young carer was identified.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has consulted organisations representing unpaid carers in drawing up guidance on vaccinating them against the coronavirus.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are developing bespoke guidance for unpaid carers, set out in a Standard Operating Protocol, which has been co-produced with Carers UK, the Carers Trust, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association. This will be published shortly.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government plans to publish guidance on vaccinating unpaid carers against covid-19.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are developing bespoke guidance for unpaid carers, set out in a Standard Operating Protocol, which has been co-produced with Carers UK, the Carers Trust, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association. This will be published shortly.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to collect data on carers’ assessments and carers’ respite provision at a national level; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Digital collect annual information from local authorities in England detailing support provided for both new and already known carers. This support can be the outcome of a carer assessment or a carer review. Carers are included if they were receiving ongoing support during the year, even if no review of those arrangements took place. Information is provided relating to the type of support offered to the carer - for example, direct support such as ‘direct payments’ or ‘Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSR) managed Personal Budget’, or if support was directly arranged by the local authority for the cared-for person. This includes respite services.
Those carers assessed during the year but provided no support are also counted. In addition, last November we commissioned the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to run a survey with local authorities to capture data on the current status of day services nationally to understand and help overcome the challenges in reopening and extending day care opportunities to enable carers to access respite.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the resumption of local authority carers’ respite services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Throughout the pandemic we have worked with local authorities to support them to maintain services and support for unpaid carers. After the first wave of the pandemic we worked with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to publish guidance on the safe reopening of day/respite services.
We have also enabled some of the money provided to local authorities through the Infection Control Fund to be used to help services reopen safely or be reconfigured to work in a COVID-19 secure way to continue to provide community and day support services, which we know in turn provide respite for carers. The restrictions on leaving home and gathering during the current lockdown have been drafted to ensure that day services can continue to operate with up to 15 service users per session and for people to leave home for respite and receive respite care in their own homes. These respite provisions apply to both unpaid carers and those they care for.
We know that day services and other forms of respite care are vital services and we are working with local authorities, in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Ministerial counterparts in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure, where possible, the safe resumption of services.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allow the resumption of close contact care home visits; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the face of a new variant of the virus we have acted to protect those most at risk in care homes and while advising how visits can go ahead safely in some form. As set out in updated visiting guidance, visits to care homes can continue to take place with arrangements such as substantial screens, visiting pods or behind windows. Close-contact indoor visits are not currently advised. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, visits in exceptional circumstances including end of life should always be supported and enabled.
We recognise how important it is to allow care home residents to meet their loved ones safely. We are looking to enable a wider range of visiting arrangements available when it is safe to do so. We will publish updated guidance as this period of national restrictions ends.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure care packages are re-implemented after the covid-19 outbreak without any requirement for further assessment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Assessments of social care packages under the Care Act 2014 have been continuing during the pandemic in the majority of areas. The Care Act easements were introduced by eight local authorities in total, but no local authorities are currently implementing these easements. It is for local authorities to decide whether a review or reassessment is required. Where care packages are reduced during the COVID-19 outbreak, local authorities may review the changes to ensure that all needs are being met.
The Care Act 2014 requires that where an adult or carer appears to have care and support needs the local authority must carry out a care needs assessment. Once an eligibility determination has been made the local authority should then carry out a financial assessment to determine whether or not the person should pay anything towards their care.