Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 recruitment and retention for operating department practitioners.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Recruitment and retention is matter for National Health Service trusts to manage at a local level.
Currently, all trusts across England have access to a series of retention masterclasses provided by NHS Improvement – the first and second series last year were attended by over 400 trust representatives. NHS Improvement has recently announced a third series of masterclasses for the beginning of October 2018.
NHS Improvement also facilitates the sharing of good practice around the country in collaboration with NHS Employers.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the time taken to obtain security clearance for health and social care staff on the delivery of healthcare in prisons.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not made a formal assessment of the effect of the time taken to obtain security clearance for health and social care staff on the delivery of healthcare in prisons.
All staff and non-directly employed personnel are subject to a series of pre-appointment security checks to determine their suitability to work in a prison. The unique nature of such work means that checks may need to be more comprehensive than other locations and can take time.
NHS England continues to work with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice to expedite clearance on a case by case basis where concerns are raised by providers.
The end-to-end recruitment procedure has been reviewed by the Ministry of Justice to identify the points at which delays have or can take place. Action has been taken to address these and the backlog of cases has been reduced significantly from last year. This in turn, should also result in reduced processing times in security vetting for all staff.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the time taken to obtain security clearance for health and social care staff on the delivery of healthcare in prisons.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not made a formal assessment of the effect of the time taken to obtain security clearance for health and social care staff on the delivery of healthcare in prisons.
All staff and non-directly employed personnel are subject to a series of pre-appointment security checks to determine their suitability to work in a prison. The unique nature of such work means that checks may need to be more comprehensive than other locations and can take time.
NHS England continues to work with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice to expedite clearance on a case by case basis where concerns are raised by providers.
The end-to-end recruitment procedure has been reviewed by the Ministry of Justice to identify the points at which delays have or can take place. Action has been taken to address these and the backlog of cases has been reduced significantly from last year. This in turn, should also result in reduced processing times in security vetting for all staff.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has commissioned a review of research relating to the health implications of shale gas extraction by any organisation since the 2015 general election.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England continues to review the evidence on the potential public health impacts of emissions associated with shale gas extraction and has not currently identified any significant evidence that would make it change its views stated in its 2014 Review.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 May 2018 to Question 141873, what progress has been made on evaluating the potential impact to the sector of sleep-in back-pay liabilities; and which care sector representatives have been consulted with respect to that evaluation.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government commissioned market analysis in order to understand the scale of the national minimum wage back-pay liabilities across the social care sector, which was open to all providers across the social care sector. This work is currently subject to further analysis and refinement.
Due to the sensitive nature of this work, no data that could be used to identify providers or local authorities has been shared with any Government department.
Officials meet regularly with various sector representatives including members of Learning Disability Voices, Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, Care England, the Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, and others – to better understand the impact this issue is having on the sector.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2018 to Question 133443, on Social Services: Minimum Wage, what timescale he has for discussions with the European Commission.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Officials opened discussions with representatives from the European Commission on 6 December 2017. These discussions are ongoing.
The Government will continue to engage with the European Commission to determine how any support that may be offered would comply with State aid rules.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the implementation of his Department's proposals for reform of death certification by April 2019; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to the introduction of medical examiners from April 2019, to provide a system of effective medical scrutiny of all non-coronial deaths. Following a public consultation on associated reforms, the Government plans to publish a response shortly, accompanied by an impact assessment which will set out the costs and benefits of the revised approach.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 number of non-EU GP registrars who are currently on GP training schemes in England who will not be eligible for indefinite leave to remain when they finish their three-year training.
Answered by Steve Brine
Currently there are 719 non-European Economic Area national general practitioner trainees working under a Tier 2 visa. On the completion of training, these trainees would be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain if they meet the requirements as set out by UK Visas and Immigration. Eligibility is based on individual circumstance and will be decided by UK Visas and Immigration.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when allocating the 1000 additional undergraduate medical student places, what steps he plans to take to ensure that medical schools outside London receive a fair allocation of those places.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government has announced a historic expansion of medical school places in England, with an increase of 1,500 medical school places in England. The first 500 places have already been allocated and will be available to students in September 2018.
The Government response to the recent consultation was published on 9 August 2017, confirming that 1,000 additional medical school places would be available to medical schools in England via a competitive bidding process to be managed jointly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Health Education England (HEE).
It also set out the priority areas bidding criteria would need to focus that include aligning the expansion to local National Health Service workforce need with an emphasis on priority geographical areas, including rural and coastal areas.
HEFCE and HEE are currently finalising the design of the bidding process and will publish details in the autumn.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to announce the criteria and timetable for allocating additional undergraduate medical student places.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government has announced a historic expansion of medical school places in England, with an increase of 1,500 medical school places in England. The first 500 places have already been allocated and will be available to students in September 2018.
The Government response to the recent consultation was published on 9 August 2017, confirming that 1,000 additional medical school places would be available to medical schools in England via a competitive bidding process to be managed jointly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Health Education England (HEE).
It also set out the priority areas bidding criteria would need to focus that include aligning the expansion to local National Health Service workforce need with an emphasis on priority geographical areas, including rural and coastal areas.
HEFCE and HEE are currently finalising the design of the bidding process and will publish details in the autumn.