Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to consult with the social care sector before publishing the social care green paper as announced in paragraph 5.6 of Spring Budget 2017.
Answered by David Mowat
The Government is committed to establishing a fairer, more sustainable basis for funding adult social care, in the face of the future demographic challenges the country faces. We will bring forward proposals in a green paper later this year to put the state funded system on a more secure long-term footing. The Secretary of State for Health, his ministerial team, and officials meet regularly with stakeholders from the social care sector. We intend to build on and continue this engagement in developing our proposals. Once published the green paper will provide further opportunity for people across the social care sector to consider and respond to our proposals.
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
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 local authorities do not commission 15-minute homecare visits for personal care in the circumstances set out as not appropriate for such a length of visit in paragraph 4.101 of the Department of Health's Care and Support Statutory Guidance.
Answered by David Mowat
The statutory guidance to the Care Act 2014 is clear that local authorities should commission services to meet the needs of individuals and that very short home care visits would not normally be compatible with high quality care.
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning decisions, accountable to their local populations through elected members. The Government does not routinely intervene in individual decisions, but both the Government and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) agree that inappropriately short home care visits are unacceptable.
The Department has worked with local government and the care sector to develop and encourage good practice in commissioning and managing local markets. A suite of guidance is now available at the online Hub that is now published on GOV.UK under market shaping and commissioning.
In particular, the guidance ‘Commissioning for Better Outcomes’ (under Resources for Commissioners) is being actively used in the sector to improve commissioning and directly asks commissioners to review how short home care visits are used.
We are working with the Local Government Association (LGA) and ADASS through a sector-led improvement approach to encourage best practice and improve local commissioning skills. Specifically, the Department funds the LGA to deliver the Care Health Improvement Programme.
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the future level of demand for social care; and what steps he is taking to ensure that that level of demand can be met.
Answered by David Mowat
Social care continues to be a key priority for the Government.
The Spending Review as a whole looked at the pressures on local government over the Spending Review period and particular attention was paid to adult social care services. Spending Review decisions on social care services took into account a range of financial and economic factors, including independent academic modelling of future demand for services.
As a result of the Spending Review announced in November 2015, the Government is giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion of new support for social care by 2019/20. This should mean local government has access to the funding to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament.
In addition the current Relative Needs Formula does take into account demographics and seeks to measure need for state-funded care, and thus takes into account population need, the proportion of the population who are below the income and wealth means test threshold and the level of informal care support available.
The Department has commissioned a review of the formulae that we use for the Relative Needs Formula. This review is so that we can incorporate more recent and detailed data and statistical techniques. The researchers are currently writing up the research and this will be published in due course.
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the funding gap in social care on the adequate provision of appropriate social care.
Answered by David Mowat
Social care continues to be a key priority for the Government.
The Spending Review as a whole looked at the pressures on local government over the Spending Review period and particular attention was paid to adult social care services. Spending Review decisions on social care services took into account a range of financial and economic factors, including independent academic modelling of future demand for services.
As a result of the Spending Review announced in November 2015, the Government is giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion of new support for social care by 2019/20. This should mean local government has access to the funding to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament.
In addition the current Relative Needs Formula does take into account demographics and seeks to measure need for state-funded care, and thus takes into account population need, the proportion of the population who are below the income and wealth means test threshold and the level of informal care support available.
The Department has commissioned a review of the formulae that we use for the Relative Needs Formula. This review is so that we can incorporate more recent and detailed data and statistical techniques. The researchers are currently writing up the research and this will be published in due course.
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the number of social care workers over the next five years.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department of Health is engaged with colleagues in the Department for Exiting the European Union to ensure that the needs of social care providers and those in ineed of social care services are taken into account as we exit from the EU.
The Government has made clear it wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that would not be possible is if British citizens’ rights in European member states were not protected in return.
The Department is aware that our challenge, working alongside stakeholders in the adult social care sector, is to ensure the workforce has the right number of people to meet increasing demands, with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours to deliver quality, compassionate care.
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for how many transfers of care was the time taken for their delivery extended awaiting provision of social care in each year since 2010.
Answered by David Mowat
The information is not available in the format requested. NHS England publishes a snapshot of the number of patients ready for transfer but still occupying a hospital bed on the last Thursday of each month, and the total number of delayed days during the month for all patients delayed throughout the month. The data show the reasons for these delays and how many delays were attributable to local authority provided social care. A time series of the data from August 2010 is available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/delayed-transfers-of-care/2016-17-data/
and is summarised in the following table.
Delayed transfers of care attributable to local authority provided social care, 2011-12 to 2016-17
Financial year | Number of delayed days during the reporting period | Number of patients with a delayed transfer of care at midnight on the last Thursday of each month |
2011-12 | 422,604 | 14,975 |
2012-13 | 385,131 | 13,279 |
2013-14 | 365,061 | 12,783 |
2014-15 | 421,434 | 14,910 |
2015-16 | 565,028 | 19,875 |
2016-17 year to September | 358,324 | 12,564 |
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of women aged 50 or older received cervical screening in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The attached table shows cervical screening coverage data (the proportion of the eligible population who are screened) for a range of age groups from 50 years and older. Results are presented at screening intervals of five years.
It should be noted that although the data provided reports on an older definition of coverage from the KC53 return, data reported to the new coverage definition (age appropriate coverage) is only available from 2011.
Asked by: Teresa Pearce (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the incidence of cervical cancer for women over 50 years old was in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The incidence of cervical cancer for women over 50 years old in each of the last 10 years can be found in the following table.
Number and age-standardised incidence rate of cervical cancers (C53) in women aged 50 and over, in England, from 2001 to 2013
Year | Total Number of Tumours | Age Standardised Incidence Rate (per 100,000) |
2001 | 1,160 | 13.022 |
2002 | 1,082 | 11.935 |
2003 | 1,124 | 12.279 |
2004 | 991 | 10.763 |
2005 | 981 | 10.704 |
2006 | 1,004 | 10.820 |
2007 | 969 | 10.404 |
2008 | 927 | 9.823 |
2009 | 971 | 10.198 |
2010 | 918 | 9.518 |
2011 | 964 | 9.894 |
2012 | 984 | 9.974 |
2013 | 1,024 | 10.206 |
Source: https://cancerdata.nhs.uk/incidence/age_standardised_rates