Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022, Official Report, column 850, on what evidential basis the Chancellor said that 200,000 additional care packages could be delivered due to funding made available for the health and social care sector in the next two years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is making available up to £7.5 billion over two years to support adult social care and discharge. Dividing this amount of new funding by the average cost of a long-term care package, which is approximately £37,500, provides an illustration of how many long-term care packages this funding could equate to. Local areas will be responsible for deciding how this funding is best used.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to ensure that Birmingham City Council receives prompt notification of the outcome of their application for funding for Erdington High Street through the second round of the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The outcome of the second round of the Levelling Up Fund has been announced.
I am pleased to say that there will be another round of the Fund, and we will provide more details on this shortly.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
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 (a) level of prevalence of long covid in the adult social care workforce and (b) impact of long covid on the provision of adult social care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made. The Department uses estimates provided by the Office for National Statistics on the prevalence of ongoing symptoms following COVID-19 infection in the United Kingdom. Estimates are based on the self-reporting of ongoing symptoms by study participants rather than a clinical diagnosis and data is available at the following link:
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
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 ensure that people living with a severe mental illness are able to receive a flu vaccination in winter 2022-23.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
People with severe mental ill-health are eligible for a free flu vaccine where they have other clinical conditions which would increase the risk of serious complications. Health professionals will make clinical assessments to consider the impact of flu infection on an individual’s pre-existing condition.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
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 ensure the 10-year plan for dementia will increase dementia diagnosis rates in (a) England and (b) Birmingham, Erdington constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are reviewing plans for dementia in England and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to encourage greater standardisation in the operation of landlord licensing schemes across the country.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is bringing forward a series of actions in this direction as set out in the White Paper 'Fairer Private Rented Sector', published in June. This includes proposals to introduce a national framework for setting fines, based on clear culpability and harm considerations, which will ensure a more consistent approach to fine setting across the country. We are keen to bolster national oversight of local councils' enforcement, and our intention is to look at the ways councils can share their successes and challenges from their licensing schemes. We are currently conducting user research with landlords, tenants, agents and local authorities to explore the potential merits of a Privately Rented Property Portal.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing councils to introduce stronger financial penalties for rogue landlords.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is bringing forward a series of actions in this direction as set out in the White Paper 'Fairer Private Rented Sector', published in June. This includes proposals to introduce a national framework for setting fines, based on clear culpability and harm considerations, which will ensure a more consistent approach to fine setting across the country. We are keen to bolster national oversight of local councils' enforcement, and our intention is to look at the ways councils can share their successes and challenges from their licensing schemes. We are currently conducting user research with landlords, tenants, agents and local authorities to explore the potential merits of a Privately Rented Property Portal.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a national landlord registration scheme.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is bringing forward a series of actions in this direction as set out in the White Paper 'Fairer Private Rented Sector', published in June. This includes proposals to introduce a national framework for setting fines, based on clear culpability and harm considerations, which will ensure a more consistent approach to fine setting across the country. We are keen to bolster national oversight of local councils' enforcement, and our intention is to look at the ways councils can share their successes and challenges from their licensing schemes. We are currently conducting user research with landlords, tenants, agents and local authorities to explore the potential merits of a Privately Rented Property Portal.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the Windrush Compensation Scheme have been received from (a) Birmingham and (b) Birmingham, Erdington constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The nationality and country of residence of Windrush Compensation Scheme claimants is published as part of the regular transparency data release which can be found here: Windrush Compensation Scheme data: October 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Windrush Compensation Scheme does not record data in a way which allows us to report on the location of claimants in the UK.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support (a) Wilson Stuart School in Erdington and (b) other special academies to cover the costs of higher energy bills to ensure that they do not have to make cuts to other parts of their budget.
Answered by Will Quince
The department is aware schools are facing cost pressures, especially around energy costs. Cost pressures should be seen in the wider context of funding for schools. This government continues to deliver year on year increases to the core schools budget with a £7 billion cash increase in funding by the 2024/25 financial year, compared with the 2021/22 financial year, taking total funding to £56.8 billion by 2024/25. As a result, we can announce that high needs funding for children and young people with complex needs, including funding for the special schools in which many of them are educated, is increasing in the 2022/23 financial year by £1 billion, to a total of £9.1 billion.
Special schools, including Wilson Stuart School, should discuss with the local authorities placing pupils in their schools, how much high needs funding is passed on to them for helping with energy and other cost increases. Birmingham will attract a high needs funding increase of 15.6% per head of their population aged 2 to 18 this year, compared to the previous financial year’s allocation, bringing their total high needs funding allocation in the 2022/23 financial year to £243.5 million.
In addition, all schools can access the department’s schools resource management (SRM) offer. This includes a range of practical tools and information to help schools unlock efficiencies, for example, by saving money on regular purchases and avoiding paying ‘over the odds’ for services like energy, insurance, or recruitment advertising, which they can then reinvest in line with their own priorities.
The SRM offer includes the Get Help Buying for Schools service, which provides specialist support, advice, and guidance for schools around their procurement activity. The service signposts schools to ‘department-recommended’ frameworks for schools and trusts to recommended deals for energy costs and services relating to energy, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buying-for-schools/energy.