Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussion he has had with NHS hospitals in England on the matter of hospitals having to pay higher fees for agency workers due to additional two bank holidays this year.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State has not had discussions on this matter. Agency price caps for bank holidays are capped at Sunday rates. We know that National Health Service trusts that pay enhancements on bank holidays, for both substantive and bank employees, attract more staff, meaning most shifts are filled before agencies are approached. NHS trusts use workforce optimisation tools such as the use of e-rostering and e-job planning to allow the NHS to efficiently schedule staff rotas around public holidays.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have withdrawn the opportunity for COVID-19 vaccine boosters to people living with the immunocompromised people at risk of severe infection or death from COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), in autumn 2022 an extra booster dose was offered to individuals aged 50 years old and over, residents in care homes for older people, frontline health and social care workers, those aged five to 49 years old in a clinical risk group and individuals aged five to 49 years old who were household contacts of people with immunosuppression or carers, as defined in the UK Health Security Agency green book. The autumn programme closed on 12 February 2023 in England.
On 7 March 2023, the Government accepted the advice of the JCVI to offer an additional booster vaccine dose in spring 2023. The primary aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme continues to be the prevention of severe disease, hospitalisation and mortality, arising from COVID-19. Therefore, the spring booster has been offered to those at highest risk of severe COVID-19, adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in a care home for older adults and individuals aged five years old and over who are immunosuppressed.
The spring booster programme in 2022 also focused on those at highest risk of severe COVID-19 and offered an additional dose to these same targeted groups from 12 years old and up.
Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the reasons for which the number of full-time equivalent children and family social workers leaving between October 2021 and September 2022 was the highest since the collection of figures began in 2017; and what steps she plans to take to increase the recruitment and retention of children and family social workers.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Social workers play a valuable role in supporting the most vulnerable in society and the department is committed to ensuring there is an excellent child and family social worker for everyone who needs one. We recognise the ongoing challenge facing local authorities across the country in recruiting and retaining child and family social workers, with reasons for social workers leaving the profession being varied and complex. However, the current number of full time-equivalent social workers is still higher than it was in 2017.
The department currently invests more than £50 million every year on recruiting, training and developing child and family social workers to ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.
Through the fast track and development programmes, the department trains an average of 800 new social workers and provides professional development for around 4,000 others. This includes leadership training, which we know plays an important role in improving recruitment and retention.
On 2 February 2023, the department published its care reform strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out proposals to help stabilise the workforce. This includes supporting the recruitment of up to 500 social worker apprenticeships, a new Early Career Framework that will set out the development plans for a social worker’s first five years, and proposals to reduce the sector’s overreliance on agency social workers, which will all play an important role in helping to improve recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that a child may be placed for adoption in a family with a different racial and cultural background to his or her own if that is conducive to the child's overall welfare.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Many adopters provide brilliant love and care for children, including those with whom they do not share the same ethnicity. The department’s National Adoption Strategy, published in July 2021, sets out a specific commitment to ensuring adopters get the support they need if they adopt children of a different ethnicity to their own. Further details are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006232/_Adoption_strategy_.pdf.
Regional Adoption Agency leaders are looking to develop specific transracial resources for social workers and adopters, as part of their work in supporting children with their identity.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2023 to Question 166379 on Health Professions: Migrant Workers, if he will make it his policy not to recruit health workers from Nepal.
Answered by Will Quince
In August 2022, the Government of Nepal and the Government of the United Kingdom signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the managed and ethical recruitment of Nepalese healthcare workers to the UK. This agreement explicitly sets out that any recruitment must adhere to the UK’s codes of practice for the ethical international recruitment of health and social care personnel.
The MOU is signed on the basis that the active recruitment of health and care workers from Nepal to the UK will begin with an initial small-scale pilot to recruit up to 100 nurses over a period of 15 months. During the pilot, recruitment activities will be limited to one Trust and its partners. No other UK employer or recruitment agency should carry out active health worker recruitment activities in Nepal. This will mean the UK Government can monitor and ensure that all active recruitment through this MOU is done in accordance with the strongest ethical principles.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to help (a) find and return to safety and (b) prevent the further disappearance of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.
Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
Since July 2021, when unaccompanied asylum seeking children were first accommodated in hotels, there have been 447 missing episodes (the term episode used as some children have gone missing been located and subsequently gone missing again). 186 of these young people are still missing.
This is based on local management information and therefore liable to change.
If a young person goes missing from a care setting, including a UASC hotel, the MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol is followed. A multi-agency, missing persons meeting is chaired by the local authority to establish the young person's whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have safely reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.
The Home Office work with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who went missing were subsequently found and returned to safety in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.
Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All contingency sites have security staff on site and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
Since July 2021, when unaccompanied asylum seeking children were first accommodated in hotels, there have been 447 missing episodes (the term episode used as some children have gone missing been located and subsequently gone missing again). 186 of these young people are still missing.
This is based on local management information and therefore liable to change.
If a young person goes missing from a care setting, including a UASC hotel, the MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol is followed. A multi-agency, missing persons meeting is chaired by the local authority to establish the young person's whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have safely reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.
The Home Office work with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of youth workers for meeting the objectives of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, published on 27 March 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services, which the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan builds on. The Youth Investment Fund, an integral part of the National Youth Guarantee, will invest over £300 million in creating and refurbishing up to 300 youth facilities in levelling up priority areas. Over 80% of top tier local authority areas eligible for the Youth Investment Fund contain at least one anti-social behaviour hotspot.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan committed an additional £11 million of new funding to provide an extra one million hours of youth support in anti-social behaviour hotspots, the equivalent of around 200 youth clubs opening their doors for an extra night a week. Work is underway to deliver this initiative and further details will be announced in due course.
Additionally, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) funds the National Youth Agency to maintain a register of qualified youth workers. DCMS is committed to supporting a skilled and trained youth sector workforce and we are working with the National Youth Agency to ensure clear qualification pathways, free training and access to financial support for qualifications. To date DCMS has awarded funding for bursaries for over 2,000 individuals to undertake youth work qualifications who otherwise may have been excluded due to cost.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that children with SEND receive multi-agency support; and what steps her Department is taking to learn lessons from the provision of Family Hubs and Family Help when rolling out multi-agency SEND support.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
In March this year, the government published its proposals to deliver stronger multi-agency support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Key reforms include the introduction of Local SEND and Alternative Provision Partnerships, which will bring together representatives across the system, and ensure co-production is at the centre of decision making.
The department also committed to develop and test a standard for multi-agency advisory panels, to assess the most effective size, membership and remit of a group. These panels will inform local authorities in making decisions around Education Health Care (EHC) statutory assessments. The department will also test whether a standardised EHC form is effective.
The department will strongly encourage the adoption of the Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO) role in each local area. The job description and practice expectations for the DSCO will provide the capacity and expertise to improve the links and contributions from care services into the SEND process.
The government has published the Stable Homes: Built on Love strategy for children’s social care. This included a commitment to publish a Knowledge and Skills Statement for Family Help Workers. The Knowledge and Skills Statement will be informed by new research on current family support workers, helping to use learning from existing practice to inform future multi-agency working.
Family hubs also have an important role to play. The government announced a package of around £300 million last year, to transform a wide range of services for parents, carers, babies, and children in half of upper tier local authorities across England, including by creating a network of family hubs. The department has published guidance setting out the expectations of local authorities receiving a share of the funding, which includes specific expectations around hubs helping families who have children with SEND to access appropriate support and services. A copy of the guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide.
We will robustly evaluate the programme and build the evidence base around what works for family hubs.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2023 to Question 135225 on Social Services: Agency Workers, what the value is of agency staff costs as a proportion of total staff costs in non-specialist care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
According to Skills for Care, 8% of all filled posts in the care sector were bank, pool, or agency in 2021/22. 7% of all filled posts in residential care and 7% in domiciliary care were bank, pool, or agency in 2021/22. In the absence of more complete data on the number or cost of agency staff in previous years, we are unable to make a robust estimate on the annual spend on agency care workers in last 13 years.