Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the findings of the Deloitte and King's College audit of the liability of the social care sector for sleep-in shifts.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Both the Deloitte and King’s studies have fed into the Government’s work on sleep-ins. The information requested forms part of the evidence base that is being used to assess options and is subject to further analysis and refinement. Consequently there is no timetable for publication.
These studies have assisted Government officials in their understanding of the scale of the liabilities that the social care sector is facing.
The Government recognises the pressure that has been placed on the sleep-in sector by historic liabilities for back pay and is exploring options to minimise any impact on the social care sector.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 findings of the Deloitte and King's College audit of the liability of the social care sector for sleep-in shifts.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Both the Deloitte and King’s studies have fed into the Government’s work on sleep-ins. The information requested forms part of the evidence base that is being used to assess options and is subject to further analysis and refinement. Consequently there is no timetable for publication.
These studies have assisted Government officials in their understanding of the scale of the liabilities that the social care sector is facing.
The Government recognises the pressure that has been placed on the sleep-in sector by historic liabilities for back pay and is exploring options to minimise any impact on the social care sector.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 potential merits of the Government fully meeting the costs in the care sector of any liability and back-pay relating to sleep-in shifts.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Both the Deloitte and King’s studies have fed into the Government’s work on sleep-ins. The information requested forms part of the evidence base that is being used to assess options and is subject to further analysis and refinement. Consequently there is no timetable for publication.
These studies have assisted Government officials in their understanding of the scale of the liabilities that the social care sector is facing.
The Government recognises the pressure that has been placed on the sleep-in sector by historic liabilities for back pay and is exploring options to minimise any impact on the social care sector.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the total sleep-in back pay liability for care providers in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) on 26 February 2018 to Question 128962.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming Green Paper on adult social care will consider the quality and access to care services in addition to funding models.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Ahead of the Green Paper’s publication, the Government is working with experts, stakeholders and people using care and support services to shape the long-term reform which is needed. When the Green Paper is published, it will then be subject to a full public consultation, providing a further opportunity for interested parties to give their views, including older people and those using services.
The Government is clear that our vision for care must incorporate the wider networks of support and services which help older people to live independently, including the crucial role of housing and the interaction with other public services. It must consider how care is provided at present and challenge the system to embrace new technology, innovation and workforce models which can deliver better quality and value.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to promote its consultation on social care to older people.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Ahead of the Green Paper’s publication, the Government is working with experts, stakeholders and people using care and support services to shape the long-term reform which is needed. When the Green Paper is published, it will then be subject to a full public consultation, providing a further opportunity for interested parties to give their views, including older people and those using services.
The Government is clear that our vision for care must incorporate the wider networks of support and services which help older people to live independently, including the crucial role of housing and the interaction with other public services. It must consider how care is provided at present and challenge the system to embrace new technology, innovation and workforce models which can deliver better quality and value.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 potential merits of re-packaging unused medication that has been returned to pharmacies to reduce waste in the health sector.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government does not promote the reuse of medicines that have left the pharmacy and returned to a pharmacy by patients, as it is not possible to guarantee the quality of a returned medicine on physical inspection alone.
When medicines are returned from patients’ homes, there is no way of knowing how the medicines have been stored in people’s homes.
The July 2017 edition of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s ‘Medicines, Ethics and Practice – The professional guide for pharmacists’ states that patients should be advised that unused, unwanted medicines should be returned to a pharmacy for safe disposal.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to reduce the occurrence of still-births.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Since the Maternity Safety Action Plan was launched in 2016, more than 90% of trusts have appointed a named board-level maternity safety champion; 136 National Health Service trusts have received a share of an £8.1 million maternity safety training fund and, as of June 2017, more than 12,000 additional staff have received training. The maternal and neonatal health safety collaborative was launched on 28 February 2017 and 44 wave 1 trusts have attended intensive training on quality improvement science and are working on implementing local quality improvement projects with regular visits from a dedicated quality improvement manager; and 25 trusts were successful in their bids for a share of the £250,000 maternity safety innovation fund and have been progressing with their projects to drive improvements in safety.
The majority of maternity care providers are now implementing all four elements of the Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle, which recommends four key elements of evidence-based care and practice: reducing smoking in pregnancy, risk assessment and surveillance for fetal growth restriction, raising awareness of reduced fetal movement and effective fetal monitoring during labour. The Department has also funded the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford to develop a national standardised Perinatal Mortality Review Tool to support local perinatal death reviews.
On 28 November 2017, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State published ‘Safer Maternity Care, The National Maternity Safety Strategy - Progress and Next Steps’, which set out a series of additional measures and made clear his intention to bring forward the national ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth from 2030 to 2025.
From April 2018, every case of a stillbirth, neonatal death, suspected brain injury or maternal death that is notified to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ (RCOG) ‘Each Baby Counts’ programme, about 1,000 incidents annually, will be investigated independently, with a thorough, learning-focused investigation conducted by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch. The new independent maternity safety investigations will involve families from the outset, and they will have an explicit remit not just to get to the bottom of what happened in an individual instance, but to spread knowledge around the system so that mistakes are not repeated.
In addition, the Department has provided funding for the RCOG to launch 'Each Baby Counts Learn and Support' - a programme of work to enable greater collaboration between the Royal Colleges and the NHS via the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative - the aim is to align quality and safety improvement, multi-professional learning and clinical leadership into a consistent and sustainable safety strategy across the system. The Department is also providing new funding to train health practitioners, such as maternity support workers, to deliver evidence-based smoking cessation according to appropriate national standards.
Further information about the additional measures in place to achieve the ambition and reduce stillbirths can be found here in the National Maternity Safety Strategy:
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 potential merits of offering a third trimester scan to pregnant women as a measure to reduce the number of still-births.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The UK National Screening Committee is considering evidence to use screening in an effort to reduce stillbirth. A review document will be publicly consulted on later in the year. Information and how to participate in the consultation will be made available at:
https://legacyscreening.phe.org.uk/screening-recommendations.php
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that care homes do not close as a result of the recent ruling on pay during sleep-in shifts.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government recognises the pressure that sleep-in liabilities may place on care providers and is exploring options to minimise any impact on the social care sector.
As in any market there are inevitable entries and exits of care organisations, but the Government is committed to ensuring that the social care sector is stable, both for those receiving care and for care workers.
We have given local authorities in England an extra £2 billion over the next three years to maintain access for our growing aging population and allow councils to sustain a diverse care market including care home places.
In addition the Government has announced we will consult on plans to improve the social care system and to put it on a more secure financial footing.