Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the report Who Cares Wins published by Community Integrated Care in March, what assessment they have made of how improving pay for front-line care and support workers would reduce vacancy rates and staff turnover in the care sector to the average within the NHS; and whether they will develop a plan for parity of pay between front-line care and support workers in the social care sector and equivalent roles in the NHS.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Dissolution. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of GP provision in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Each GP is required to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of their patients. There is no Government recommendation for how many patients a GP should have assigned, or the ratio of GPs or other practice staff to patients. The demands each patient places on their GP are different, and can be affected by many different factors, including rurality and patient demographics. It is necessary to consider the workforce for each practice as a whole, not only GPs, but also the range of health professionals available who are able to respond to the needs of their patients.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) update statutory guidance to classify homeless children as needing support from children’s social care services, and (2) disseminate updated information on rights and entitlements.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to better equipping social workers to support families in need, including through the provision of delegated budgets for them to provide material support to families.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support the recruitment and retention of GPs in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with NHS England to grow the workforce by boosting recruitment, addressing the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encouraging them to return to practice. Under the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the number of general practice training places will rise from 4,000 to 6,000 by 2031/32. The first 500 new places will be available from September 2025. NHS England has made available a number of recruitment and retention schemes, to boost the general practice workforce.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help grow the GP workforce in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with NHS England to grow the workforce by boosting recruitment, addressing the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encouraging them to return to practice. Under the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the number of general practitioner training places will rise from 4,000 to 6,000 by 2031/32. The first 500 new places will be available from September 2025. NHS England has made available a number of recruitment schemes to boost the general practice workforce.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will undertake an environmental impact assessment of Southern Waters policy on sewage discharges into (a) Langstone Harbour and (b) the Solent.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Sewage discharges by Southern Water into Langstone Harbour and the Solent are permitted by the Environment Agency. The limits on these permits are informed by environmental impact assessments. If the Environment Agency finds any company breaching the conditions of their permits, they will take action, up to and including prosecution.
The Government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan is driving £60bn between now and 2050 to reduce the use of storm overflows, including those discharging into the Solent and Langstone Harbour.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will undertake an environmental impact assessment of Southern Water’s decision to respond to increased rainfall by improving surface water drainage.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency continues to liaise with Southern Water to implement Pathfinder projects in Whitstable, Margate and Deal, in order to reduce surface water inputs to Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) during heavy rainfall. These catchments are affected by hydraulic overload from groundwater infiltration into sewers, leading to the WWTW becoming overloaded and therefore subject to additional sewage spills to the environment. Measures taken by the Pathfinder project to slow rainfall ingress into groundwater have already led to reductions in spill numbers and works are continuing to reduce total spill numbers further. The Environment Agency also inputs to Drainage and Waste Water Management Plans to ensure future integrated planning is in place.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps their Department is taking to support the Disability Confident scheme; how many officials in their Department work directly on supporting that scheme; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that work in supporting the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of disabled people in their Department; and what further steps they are taking to support their Department’s recruitment and retention of disabled people.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department proudly supports the Disability Confident Scheme, and has renewed its status as a Disability Confident employer. No single official works directly on the scheme, and in line with Civil Service guidance, we have moved away from standalone roles and teams to embed equality, diversity, and inclusion activities within existing human resource portfolios and roles. Activity to support the recruitment and retention of colleagues with a disability is undertaken across our recruitment, talent, and employee experience teams.
In the last calendar year, 11.3% of successful applicants applied under the Disability Confident Scheme. This is a slight increase from last year, at 10.9%. We additionally review our disability representation rates on a regular basis to monitor the impact of our recruitment practices and policy changes. We also have dedicated staff networks to support our disabled employees and celebrate achievements. Turnover of permanent employees who have declared they have a disability is currently approximately 6%, which is significantly lower than the average permanent staff turnover of colleagues who do not have a declared disability.
In 2023, we launched a new Workplace Adjustments policy, process, and passport. The new process is designed to ensure everyone in the Department can access the support they need as easily and quickly as possible via a person-centred approach that identifies and seeks to remove workplace barriers.
We also delivered several talent schemes that can assist in supporting the retention and development of disabled colleagues. This includes Beyond Boundaries, a 12-month programme for the Senior Executive Officer grade and below, to support candidates in reaching their full potential. As part of the programme, to support disability positive action, last year we ringfenced six job places out of 30, based on the proportionality of our disabled workforce, the People Survey, and recruitment data. We expect to take similar action this year.
In addition, the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) is a 12-month accelerated development scheme for Grade 6 or 7 colleagues, who have the potential to progress to the Civil Service’s most senior and critical leadership roles. There is an option for those candidates who declare a disability or long-term health condition, or both, to enrol on the Disability Empowers Leadership Talent Association (DELTA) integrated scheme. In 2022, we had four candidates participate in DELTA out of the 21 successful FLS candidates, and two out of 26 in 2021, as per the data from the Cabinet Office. It should be noted that due to the sensitive nature of the programmes, not all participants are comfortable in being open about participation in DELTA, especially those with disabilities who have yet to disclose this to their colleagues or managers.
Finally, the Department’s mutual mentoring programme encourages underrepresented groups, including colleagues with disabilities, to mentor senior civil service colleagues to help increase the engagement and retention of underrepresented staff, and increase cultural intelligence in senior leaders.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce the level of pollution in the River Wear.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) routinely assesses the level of pollution in the River Wear, taking water samples from multiple sampling sites. The EA is working with the Coal Authority, Northumbrian Water and local farmers to reduce pollution levels in the River Wear.
Northumbrian Water who operate in and around the River Wear has been informed that the inspection rates of their facilities will increase fourfold over this financial year. This will put the onus on Northumbrian Water to increase compliance at their sites which discharge into the River Wear.
The government's Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan is driving investment to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows. This includes storm overflows discharging into the River Wear.
Since 2011, the Water and Abandoned Metal Mine programme has delivered a number of small-scale interventions in the Wear catchment to begin to address the approximately 80km of the River Wear and its tributaries that are polluted by lead, cadmium or zinc.
Defra and the EA continue to work with farmers in the River Wear catchment, and across the country, to minimise and prevent agricultural pollution. This includes through advice-led enforcement of farm regulations to bring farmers into compliance, providing significant grant funding to improve infrastructure and adopt new technologies, and paying farmers through Environmental Land Schemes to deliver improved environmental outcomes.