Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure regional funding equality in the provision of education for children who are in hospital and requiring statutory entitlement to education.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We have been consulting on a national funding formula for high needs, to be implemented in 2018-19. As part of consultation, we have confirmed that for the time being we will continue to distribute funding for the education of children in hospital on the basis of local authorities’ current spending. These amounts are included in the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant that local authorities receive from the Education Funding Agency.
We are exploring with representatives from hospital schools and others how to devise a fairer distribution of funding for hospital education in future. In the meantime, we will continue to make any funding adjustments needed from year to year to reflect recent or forthcoming changes in hospital provision for children. The Education Funding Agency is currently finalising the hospital education adjustments that will be included in local authorities’ dedicated schools grant allocations for 2017-18.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Neurosciences centres fulfil the NHS England service specification for neurological care.
Answered by David Mowat
The compliance level for the neurosciences specification is very high with only a small number of services requiring a provider action plan or commissioner action.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Government's industrial strategy on Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Since 2010, private sector jobs have grown more quickly in Leeds than in any other core city. We will continue to invest in skills and infrastructure to build on this success, across the whole of the Yorkshire and Humber region.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to reduce homophobia in sport.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is determined to see the whole sport sector come together to create a truly inclusive environment for everyone.
This is why the Government sport strategy 'Sporting Future: a new strategy for an active nation' sets out a number of commitments to ensure all under-represented groups can take part in sport and wider physical activity.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential effect of variation of income tax rates.
Answered by Simon Kirby
The Scotland Act 2016 devolves further income tax powers to the Scottish Government. From April 2017, the Scottish Government will have the power to set all rates and thresholds for non-savings, non-dividends income tax in Scotland. This is an important power and means the Scottish Government is more responsible for raising the money it spends; it is accountable to the Scottish Parliament for those decisions.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will hold discussions with Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on patients with muscle-wasting conditions in the area and their access to neuromuscular care advice.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England is responsible for commissioning specialised neurological services, including services for patients with neuromuscular disorders. NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care that sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services.
The specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
National Health Service providers, working with local area teams, may establish patient access to neuromuscular care advisers if they consider it would benefit service provision; such decisions are a local matter.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to encourage leaders of local health and care systems to work together with local services to deliver good-quality end of life care for LGBT and other people.
Answered by David Mowat
Our ambition is for everyone approaching the end of life to receive high quality care that reflects their individual needs, choices and preferences. The Government set out its commitment to everyone at the end of life in the Government response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care. To fulfil the pledge in the response to support local leaders to prioritise and improve care, the Government is writing to Health and Wellbeing Boards to remind them of their duty to end of life care.
The NHS England End of Life Care Programme Team have scheduled a webinar on inequalities, featuring Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues, aimed at health and care staff, providers, and commissioners in February 2017. NHS England is also a member of the ‘Ambitions partnership for Palliative and End of Life Care’, a national partnership of 27 statutory and non-statutory organisations who published the ‘Ambitions framework: National framework for local action’ in 2015. The framework centres on six Ambitions, underpinned by a number of building blocks which need to be in place for high quality palliative and end of life care to be a reality. The second of the six Ambitions is “Each person gets fair access to care” which focuses on eliminating inequality. The Ambitions Partnership has undertaken a ‘deep dive’ discussion on inequalities, which included a specific discussion on issues for LGBT people, and are planning a follow up discussion.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the needs of LGBT people are recognised when planning and commissioning health and social care services; and how his Department plans to monitor its progress in recognising such needs.
Answered by David Mowat
It is for local commissioners to decide how best to meet the needs of their local population. However, when arranging services themselves, commissioners of health and social care must ensure their practices and the services delivered on their behalf comply with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, and do not discriminate against people with protected characteristics; this should include monitoring delivery against the requirements of that Act.
The Equality and Diversity Council, on behalf of the Department, NHS England and Public Health England, asked NHS Digital to manage the development of a data standard to cover data collection of sexual orientation across all data sets relating to adults and young people over the age of 16 in England. This will aid all health and social care organisations in providing equitable access for lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals and increase the understanding of the impact of inequalities on health outcomes for different populations in England, similar to monitoring of ethnicity and gender.
NHS England funded the LGBT Partnership led by the LGBT Foundation, to work with the Department, Public Health England and a range of stakeholders to develop a specification and seek the agreement of Standardisation Committee for Care Information (SCCI). The Foundation will submit the final application to the SCCI Board for approval in January 2017.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve palliative and end-of-life care for LGBT people.
Answered by David Mowat
Our ambition is for everyone approaching the end of life to receive high quality care that reflects their individual needs, choices and preferences. The Government set out its commitment to everyone at the end of life in the Government response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care. To fulfil the pledge in the response to support local leaders to prioritise and improve care, the Government is writing to Health and Wellbeing Boards to remind them of their duty to end of life care.
The NHS England End of Life Care Programme Team have scheduled a webinar on inequalities, featuring Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues, aimed at health and care staff, providers, and commissioners in February 2017. NHS England is also a member of the ‘Ambitions partnership for Palliative and End of Life Care’, a national partnership of 27 statutory and non-statutory organisations who published the ‘Ambitions framework: National framework for local action’ in 2015. The framework centres on six Ambitions, underpinned by a number of building blocks which need to be in place for high quality palliative and end of life care to be a reality. The second of the six Ambitions is “Each person gets fair access to care” which focuses on eliminating inequality. The Ambitions Partnership has undertaken a ‘deep dive’ discussion on inequalities, which included a specific discussion on issues for LGBT people, and are planning a follow up discussion.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent steps the Government has taken to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We want to ensure that all schools are safe, inclusive environments where pupils are able to learn and fulfil their potential. The Government expects schools to take a strong stand against all forms of bullying and cyberbullying.
This is why we recently announced a three year, £2.8 million, programme to prevent and address homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-more-children-to-benefit-from-anti-bullying-app).
We have also published new cyberbullying guidance (http://www.childnet.com/resources/cyberbullying-guidance-for-schools) and an online safety toolkit for schools to help provide advice on understanding, preventing and responding to cyberbullying (http://www.childnet.com/resources/pshetoolkit).