Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
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 12 March 2018 to Question 131390, who the person was who made the decision to appoint the Chief Officer of Warrington clinical commissioning group as the acting, interim, Chief Officer of Halton clinical commissioning group.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has advised that the appointment of the Chief Officer is made by the leadership team of the Clinical Commissioning Group. Accountable Officer status is then confirmed by Simon Stevens, Chief Executive (and Accounting Officer) of NHS England.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to ensure that the Chief Officer of Warrington Care Commissioning Group spending 50 per cent of his time as acting head of Halton clinical commissioning group does not detrimentally affect his management of Warrington Care Commissioning Group.
Answered by Steve Brine
Dr Andrew Davies has the support of very experienced senior management teams, for both NHS Halton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS Warrington CCG. Dr Davies will undertake his role and accountabilities, attending committees and governing bodies for both CCGs. The joint senior management team meets weekly (every Monday) with Dr Davies attending and chairing each weekly meeting for assurance that all requirements are met and duties are discharged. Dr Davies’ diary commitments are managed effectively to ensure that his time is split equally between both CCGs as required.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the financial viability of Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS England and NHS Improvement recently published shared planning guidance on 2 February 2018, in which it was announced that the resources available to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in 2018-19 will be increased by £1.4 billion. This will principally fund levels of emergency activity, additional elective activity needed to tackle waiting lists, universal adherence to the Mental Health Investment Standard and transformation commitments for cancer services and primary care.
As a result of this, NHS Warrington CCG will receive an additional £2.3 million in 2018-19, bringing its allocation for core services to over £282 million, a cash terms growth of more than 3% compared to 2017-18.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of on the management of Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) of the Chief Officer of that CCG also acting as the Chief Officer of Halton CCG.
Answered by Steve Brine
The management of Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Halton CCG is a matter for each individual CCG governing body, and they will ensure they have the most appropriate management structure in place to deliver their duties.
NHS England is accountable for ensuring that the health services which both it and CCGs commission are high quality and deliver value for money. In March 2016, NHS England introduced a new Improvement and Assessment Framework for CCGs, which sets out that CCGs will be assessed against health outcomes and care quality as well as sustainability and transformation. Each CCG is rated as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.
The latest overall rating for Warrington CCG and Halton CCG is that they both ‘Require Improvement’.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
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 20 February 2018 to Question 127707, what information his Department holds on the number of nurse vacancies and in what format such information is held.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS Digital publishes the number of vacancies that are advertised on NHS Jobs, the dedicated online recruitment service for the National Health Service. However, as the basis of the figures is the number of vacancies advertised for the first time in each given month, it is not possible to determine from these figures the number of vacancies live at any given point in time. The figures only cover those vacancies advertised via NHS Jobs, and it is not always possible to determine how many posts are associated with any given advertisement. The published figures are at the Health Education England region and do not go to the level of individual trusts.
This data is relatively new and there is limited data to establish trends. It is also important to note the distinction between job adverts and actual vacancies as many trusts are in a constant process of recruitment with single job adverts often covering multiple job vacancies.
The latest NHS Digital figures show that over 34,000 nursing and midwifery vacancies were advertised in the three months to September 2017 across England.
The NHS Digital vacancy figures are available at the following link:
www.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30196
NHS Jobs data from NHS Digital is not the only source of vacancy data.
NHS Improvement have produced their own estimates and analysis for vacancy numbers.
NHS Improvement figures represent management information only and are not an official statistic. Their data for nursing and midwifery shows that there are 35,835 full time equivalent nursing and midwifery vacancies, of these approximately 31,351 (87%) are filled by temporary staff (32% agency and 55% bank).
The latest NHS Improvement vacancy figures are available at the following link:
www.improvement.nhs.uk/resources/quarterly-performance-nhs-provider-sector-quarter-3-201718/
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
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 20 February 2018 to Question 127703, what information his Department holds on the level of hospital car parking charges and on what basis he decides whether the NHS has carried out its duty to ensure that charges are applied fairly.
Answered by Steve Barclay
National Health Service car parking data including level of hospital car parking charges at NHS trusts is collected annually through Estates Return Information Collection.
The latest available data for 2016-17 confirms the national average fee charges per hour for patients and visitors are £1.32 and £0.19 for staff.
NHS organisations are responsible locally for their own policy on car parking, taking into account operational circumstances and community interests.
The NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles (first published in August 2014 and then updated in October 2015), set out a nationally consistent approach to determining car parking policies, making clear the rules which NHS trusts should follow when making decisions about car parking. However, the provision of parking spaces and the level of any charges that are made to use them are matters for individual NHS trusts.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nursing posts are currently vacant in (a) Warrington and (b) the North-West.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much each NHS Trust in the North-West accrued from parking charges in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what proportion of each NHS Trust's income that figure represents.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The information requested is not collected centrally.
National Health Service trusts make decisions locally about the provision of car parking to patients, visitors and staff. The Department published clear guidelines (car parking principles) for NHS organisations that they are expected to follow. Hospitals should put concessions in place for those who most need help including disabled people, carers and staff who work shifts. The NHS itself is responsible for ensuring that charges are fairly applied.