Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 ability of the social care system in England to continue to provide care during the outbreak of covid-19, and if he will place a copy of that assessment in the House of Commons Library.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government, local authorities and providers themselves to make sure the adult social care sector has the support it needs to plan for and respond to COVID-19.
New guidance for the adult social care sector is now available at the following link:
We have created a senior leaders’ group to oversee the adult social care response to COVID-19. This group is supported by our national partners, including the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care, the Local Government Association, NHS England, Public Health England, the Care Quality Commission and adult social care provider representatives.
In addition, we are providing £2.9 billion of funding to protect and support the most vulnerable in society. The funding package will support hospitals, councils and adult social care providers to help cope with COVID-19.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 reductions in local government public health funding on food safety and public protection.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Currently, the allocation of funding for food safety and public protection at a local level is ultimately for decision by local authorities as there is no ring fencing.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), as the Government department with responsibility for food safety, sets the standards that local authorities should meet and monitors delivery against these. FSA monitoring data provides evidence that resources for food safety are reducing but that the available resources are being targeted to where there is greatest risk.
Where performance issues are identified within individual local authorities, the FSA takes action to secure improvements including highlighting where resources are not sufficient to ensure public health protection.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 bring forward legislative proposals on the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings in England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Food businesses covered by the scheme are provided with stickers showing their rating. Those in Wales and Northern Ireland are already required by law to display the stickers at their premises, while those in England are encouraged to do so.
The FSA has put together an evidence-based case for the necessary legislation to mandate display which is expected to be submitted for ministerial consideration in the near future.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Education and Skills Funding Agency on increasing the level of apprenticeship levy for adult care workers from the current lowest band of £3,000.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
No such discussions have taken place.
Apprenticeships are an important entry route into the social care sector, offer an excellent opportunity for employers to upskill existing staff and train new staff as part of high-quality training programmes, and provide clear career progression routes through the sector.
Apprenticeship standards are allocated funding bands based on recommendations made to the Department for Education by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), which is an employer led Non-Departmental Body. The funding bands for Adult Care Worker and Lead Adult Care Worker apprenticeships were reviewed by IfATE in January 2019. Following discussions with the social care trailblazer group (a group of employers involved in developing apprenticeship standards for their industry) and looking at available evidence, both were retained at the same funding rate.
IfATE continue to keep the funding of all standards under review to ensure that funding bands remain appropriate.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs per 1,000 population were available in Oldham in each year from 2010 to date.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of full time equivalent doctors (FTE) in general practice (excluding locums) per 1,000 patients in Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) since 2015 has been provided in the table below. General practitioner (GP) locums are excluded as improvements have been made to GP locum recording methodology and figures are not comparable across the time series. Data is not included prior to 2015 as improvements were made to the methodology for recording all staff working in general practice in September 2015 and data prior to this is not comparable.
Number of doctors in general practice per 1,000 patients in NHS Oldham CCG
| FTE per 1,000 patients (excluding locums) |
2015 | 0.44 |
2016 | 0.46 |
2017 | 0.43 |
2018 | 0.53 |
2019 | 0.54 |
Source: NHS Digital
Notes
1. Data as at 30 September.
2. Figures shown do not include GPs working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings.
3. Each period, figures contain estimates, for practices that did not provide fully valid General Medical Practice GP records.
4. FTE refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. One would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. In Registrars' contracts one FTE = 40 hours. To ensure consistency, these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours in the table.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 bring forward legislative proposals on the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings in England.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Food businesses covered by the scheme are provided with stickers showing their rating. Those in Wales and Northern Ireland are already required by law to display the stickers at their premises, while those in England are encouraged to do so.
The FSA considers that mandatory display should extend to England and is finalising an evidence-based case for a statutory scheme which will be submitted for ministerial consideration and ultimately cross-Government approval.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received from local authorities on the funding of adult social care in England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meets numerous individuals and often receives representations regarding adult social care as part of his ministerial duties over this policy area.
Our records show 27 items of correspondence received from local authorities in the last six months about the funding of adult social care in England. This figure represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.
The Budget announced further funding for adult social care for 2018/19 and 2019/20 which local authorities will benefit from.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of applications for Care Quality Commission DBS checks used the ID verification service at Oldham Post Office.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
According to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) data, a total of 16,974 applications for a CQC DBS check were submitted between 1 July 2017 and 1 July 2018.
The Post Office transactional data shows that 220 CQC DBS applications were processed at the Oldham Post Office between the same period.
The proportion is close to 1.3%.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make provision for free prescriptions and dental treatment for people on universal credit whose earnings are less than £435 a month.
Answered by Steve Brine
Claimants of Universal Credit are entitled to free National Health Service prescriptions and free dental care if their earnings for the most recent assessment period are below prescribed earnings thresholds.
A claimant would be entitled to free NHS prescriptions and/or free NHS dental care if their earnings during that period were:
- £435 or less;
- £935 or less if their Universal Credit includes an element for either:
- A child; or
- Limited capability for work.
The Department will keep the earnings thresholds under review on an annual basis.
Patients in receipt of Universal Credit who do not qualify for this help may qualify for help through the NHS Low Income Scheme.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was spent from the public purse on child vaccinations in each year since 2010 to date.
Answered by Steve Brine
Data are not collected in the format requested.