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Written Question
School Milk
Wednesday 3rd September 2014

Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)

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 rural, remote and small settings will continue to receive milk under the Nursery Milk scheme.

Answered by Dan Poulter

Next Steps for Nursery Milk, published on 27 March, set out the Government’s plans to modernise the Nursery Milk Scheme. Ensuring supply to all eligible childcare settings will be a key consideration for the Department in developing the modernised scheme.


Written Question
Opiates: Children
Monday 1st September 2014

Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the recommendations in the report Medications in Drug Treatment: Tackling the Risks to Children published on 29 April 2014 by Adfam.

Answered by Jane Ellison

We welcome the valuable work of Adfam in producing this report.

Officials from the Department and Public Health England have regular contact with Adfam and will be discussing with them what actions would be appropriate.


Written Question
Opiates
Monday 1st September 2014

Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what training on the potential risks of opioid substitution treatment medications is provided to pharmacists, social workers and health visitors.

Answered by Jane Ellison

There is robust clinical guidance on substitute prescribing, which covers the timing and circumstances under which people with opiate dependency may be allowed to take home and be responsible for their opioid substitution medicine.

It is for the professional bodies of pharmacists, social workers and health visitors to set the standards that training equips professionals to meet, and for employers to ensure that staff who are involved in or might encounter opioid substitution treatment are trained in its potential risks, including to children.


Written Question
Cancer
Thursday 17th July 2014

Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of a potential link between nuclear power and the prevalence of cancer; and what estimate he has made of proportion of the NHS budget spent on treating patients suffering from cancer caused by nuclear power generation.

Answered by Jane Ellison

No such estimate has been made.

There has been extensive research into the possible links between nuclear power and cancer over a number of years. In particular, the independent expert Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment has published a number of major reports addressing exposure to man-made radiation from major nuclear installation operations and possible links with childhood cancers - www.comare.org.uk . Similarly, the Small Area Health Statistics Unit, based at Imperial College London and part of the MRC-PHE Centre for Environmental and Health, has published reports examining suggested links between local incidence of cancers and radioactive discharges from some nuclear installations.

All of these reports have concluded that public exposures to radiation as a result of nuclear operations is extremely unlikely to have caused discernible health consequences.

All radioactive discharges in the United Kingdom are regulated and monitored by the UK's environmental regulators.


Written Question
Hospital Beds
Thursday 12th June 2014

Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital day beds were taken because of delayed discharge relating to inaccessible housing available for disabled outpatients in (a) 2013-14 and (b) May 2014.

Answered by Norman Lamb

This data is not collected centrally.
Written Question
Hospital Beds
Thursday 12th June 2014

Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to ensure that people do not face delayed discharge from hospital because there is no suitable housing for them to be discharged; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Norman Lamb

The Government is committed to supporting the availability of suitable accommodation for those who are being discharged from hospital. It has already taken steps to demonstrate this commitment and is in the process of establishing new opportunities and mechanisms by which this can be done. Examples of these include:

- The recently passed Care Act consolidates duties on local authorities in relation to wellbeing, which specifically include consideration of “suitable living accommodation” as a component of that duty.

- Housing has also been classified as a “health related service” so that housing and suitability of accommodation should be considered in any assessment (including on discharge from hospital).

- The Better Care Fund (BCF), which this Government has established with £3.8 billion funding provides a vehicle to enhance and increase the pace of effective integration between health and social care. Clearly where suitable housing is identified as a barrier to the achievement of key measures within the BCF localities can choose to use funding within the BCF to address this. The opportunity to do this is the inclusion within the BCF of the Disabled Facilities Grant with £220 million being made available within 2015-16.

- The Disabled Facilities Grant is for the provision of adaptations to the homes of disabled people to help them to live independently. Disabled Facilities Grant adaptations include things like stair-lifts, level access showers, winches and ramps. Many people apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant upon exit from hospital because their home is no longer suitable to meet their needs.

- In terms of the Disabled Facilities Grant and the period of the last Spending Review, £785 million was made available by the Department for Communities and Local Government. They funded an organisation called Foundations, which is the national body for Home Improvement Agencies (HIAs) which help older, disabled and vulnerable people to live independently in their own homes for longer. HIAs deliver around 50% of all Disabled Facilities Grants in England.

- HIAs also provide additional services for older and vulnerable people such as handyperson services, to carry out small jobs around the home also known as minor adaptations, which are things like grab rails, ramps and moving furniture eg; moving a bed downstairs. Many HIAs provide a bespoke service called “home from hospital” or “hospital discharge” services which adapt people's homes allowing them to be discharged from hospital more quickly and freeing up hospital beds. £50 million was also made available for handyperson services during the period 2011 to 2015.

- Under the homelessness legislation a household will be considered homeless if a local housing authority determines that it would no longer be reasonable for them to continue to occupy their accommodation. This can clearly apply to an individual's change in circumstances following a stay in hospital. If a local housing authority has reason to believe that an applicant may be homeless or threatened with homelessness then they must make enquiries in order to establish if they are owed a duty.

- If a person is homeless through no fault of their own, eligible for assistance and in priority need then the local housing authority will have a duty to secure suitable accommodation for the household's occupation. Priority need is defined in legislation to include applicants with children and households that include someone who is vulnerable, for example because of old age, or physical or mental disability, have a priority need for accommodation.

- The Department of Health has supported the resource "Hospital to Home" pathway which we know many areas consider in terms of supporting an individual's recovery and preventing readmission. The resource contains information, suggestions for action, case studies and checklists for considering older patients' housing situations in hospital discharge and transfer of care.

- The Shared Commitment for integrated care and support, published in May 2013 and which the Department of Health, the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector were involved in signing up to specifically highlighted the importance of suitable housing being available as part of safe and effective discharge from hospitals.