Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2018 to Question 180219 on Disability Living Allowance: Children, whether the pilot undertaken by the Motability and Family Fund to support children under the age of three who rely on bulky medical equipment has concluded; and what outcomes that pilot has achieved.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Motability and the Family Fund are independent charities who, after being introduced by the Department, developed a pilot scheme to support families with children under the age of three that rely on bulky medical equipment.
We understand that Motability intend to significantly increase the scale of this project in order to help some of the most severely disabled children in the coming years. I look forward to them sharing their plans for this important initiative.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make representations to Motability on the allocation of funding to provide vehicles to children under the age of three that rely on bulky medical equipment from donations received from Motability operations.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Motability and the Family Fund are independent charities who, after being introduced by the Department, developed a pilot scheme to support families with children under the age of three that rely on bulky medical equipment.
We understand that Motability intend to significantly increase the scale of this project in order to help some of the most severely disabled children in the coming years. I look forward to them sharing their plans for this important initiative.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support schools and children’s groups to develop appropriate physical activity facilities and equipment for children with disabilities.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The government firmly believes in the importance of physical education (PE) and sport to develop all children’s physical competency and teach valuable life skills such as character, resilience, communication and team work that can be carried through into adulthood and improve overall wellbeing and employability.
Since 2013, the government has invested over £1 billion through the primary PE and sport premium to improve PE, sport, physical activity and extra-curricular activities for all pupils. We encourage schools to use this funding to support their least active pupils achieve the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity each day, of which 30 minutes should be during the school day. Schools have the freedom to use the funding to determine which activities will improve participation, especially for their least active pupils and a commitment in the childhood obesity plan to promote a national ambition for every primary school to embrace an active mile, such as the Daily Mile. £100 million from the soft drinks industry levy is being used to provide the healthy pupils capital fund to improve pupils’ access to facilities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing and medical conditions.
The Equality Act (2010) requires that all schools must implement accessibility plans which include increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum, and improve the physical environment of schools to enable disabled pupils to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided. Since 2014 the department has funded a grant to ensure pupils with special educational needs and disabilities have improved opportunities to take part in PE and school sport.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans to allocate additional funding for mobility payments to children under the age of three in 2019; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
There are no proposals to change the age restrictions for the mobility component of Child DLA. Only children over the age of three can claim the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA). This is because entitlement to the higher rate mobility component of DLA depends primarily on an inability to walk. All young children have substantial mobility needs up until the age of three years old.
However, the Department does understand the difficulties that some families with severely disabled children under the age of three may face, particularly those who have a reliance on bulky medical equipment which makes transportation difficult.
After being introduced by the Department, the Motability charity and Family Fund have begun a pilot to support families with their mobility needs.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to abolish the minimum age of eligibility for the mobility component of disability living allowance.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Whilst there are no proposals to change the current age restrictions for the mobility component of Child Disability Living Allowance, the Department understands the difficulties that some families with severely disabled children under the age of three may face, particularly those whose reliance on bulky medical equipment makes transportation difficult.
After being introduced by the Department, the Motability charity and Family Fund have begun a pilot to support families with their mobility needs. While I am not yet in a position to provide full details of the scheme and how it will operate, I hope to be able to do so in the coming months.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the provision of health and social care services for disabled children.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The commissioning of health and social care services is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and local authorities respectively. Local commissioners are best placed to assess the needs of the local population, and commission accordingly. While waiting times for accessing some individual services for children are reported, there is no overall waiting time measure for access to services for disabled children.
Information is collected on wheelchair services; the latest published data for quarter four 2017/18 shows 82% of children whose episode of care was closed in that period received their equipment in 18 weeks or less. NHS England is working with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to understand what is contributing to waits above 18 weeks, and consider what actions will help to reduce these.
In 2014, the Government introduced a new statutory framework requiring local authorities and CCGs to commission jointly services for children with special educational needs and disability, across health, social care and education. Since 2014, £327 million has been given to local areas to support implementation of these new arrangements, in addition to the high needs budget for placements for pupils with complex special educational needs which is £6 billion this year – the highest it has ever been. Every local area’s arrangements are being inspected jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, in addition to their role inspecting providers.
The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver services to local communities, including for provision of social care services for disabled children. The Government is conducting a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities that will develop a robust, up-to-date approach to distributing funding across all local authorities in England at Local Government Finance Settlements, including for children’s services.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
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 trends in the level of waiting times for disabled children to access health and social care services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The commissioning of health and social care services is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and local authorities respectively. Local commissioners are best placed to assess the needs of the local population, and commission accordingly. While waiting times for accessing some individual services for children are reported, there is no overall waiting time measure for access to services for disabled children.
Information is collected on wheelchair services; the latest published data for quarter four 2017/18 shows 82% of children whose episode of care was closed in that period received their equipment in 18 weeks or less. NHS England is working with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to understand what is contributing to waits above 18 weeks, and consider what actions will help to reduce these.
In 2014, the Government introduced a new statutory framework requiring local authorities and CCGs to commission jointly services for children with special educational needs and disability, across health, social care and education. Since 2014, £327 million has been given to local areas to support implementation of these new arrangements, in addition to the high needs budget for placements for pupils with complex special educational needs which is £6 billion this year – the highest it has ever been. Every local area’s arrangements are being inspected jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, in addition to their role inspecting providers.
The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver services to local communities, including for provision of social care services for disabled children. The Government is conducting a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities that will develop a robust, up-to-date approach to distributing funding across all local authorities in England at Local Government Finance Settlements, including for children’s services.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of the level of funding allocated to the provision of (a) equipment and (b) treatment for disabled children.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The commissioning of health and social care services is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and local authorities respectively. Local commissioners are best placed to assess the needs of the local population, and commission accordingly. While waiting times for accessing some individual services for children are reported, there is no overall waiting time measure for access to services for disabled children.
Information is collected on wheelchair services; the latest published data for quarter four 2017/18 shows 82% of children whose episode of care was closed in that period received their equipment in 18 weeks or less. NHS England is working with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to understand what is contributing to waits above 18 weeks, and consider what actions will help to reduce these.
In 2014, the Government introduced a new statutory framework requiring local authorities and CCGs to commission jointly services for children with special educational needs and disability, across health, social care and education. Since 2014, £327 million has been given to local areas to support implementation of these new arrangements, in addition to the high needs budget for placements for pupils with complex special educational needs which is £6 billion this year – the highest it has ever been. Every local area’s arrangements are being inspected jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, in addition to their role inspecting providers.
The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver services to local communities, including for provision of social care services for disabled children. The Government is conducting a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities that will develop a robust, up-to-date approach to distributing funding across all local authorities in England at Local Government Finance Settlements, including for children’s services.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 trends in waiting times for disabled children to access health and social care services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The commissioning of health and social care services is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and local authorities respectively. Local commissioners are best placed to assess the needs of the local population, and commission accordingly. While waiting times for accessing some individual services for children are reported, there is no overall waiting time measure for access to services for disabled children.
Information is collected on wheelchair services; the latest published data for quarter four 2017/18 shows 82% of children whose episode of care was closed in that period received their equipment in 18 weeks or less. NHS England is working with clinical commissioning groups to understand what is contributing to waits above 18 weeks, and consider what actions will help to reduce these.
In 2014, the Government introduced a new statutory framework requiring local authorities and clinical commissioning groups to jointly commission services for children with special educational needs and disability, across health, social care and education. Since 2014, £327 million has been given to local areas to support implementation of these new arrangements. This is in addition to the high needs budget for placements for pupils with complex special educational needs which is £6 billion this year – the highest it has ever been. Every local area’s arrangements are being inspected jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, in addition to their role inspecting providers.
The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver services to local communities, including for provision of social care services for disabled children. The Government is conducting a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities that will develop a robust, up-to-date approach to distributing funding across all local authorities in England at Local Government Finance Settlements, including for children’s services.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding available to provide (a) equipment and (b) treatment for disabled children.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The commissioning of health and social care services is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and local authorities respectively. Local commissioners are best placed to assess the needs of the local population, and commission accordingly. While waiting times for accessing some individual services for children are reported, there is no overall waiting time measure for access to services for disabled children.
Information is collected on wheelchair services; the latest published data for quarter four 2017/18 shows 82% of children whose episode of care was closed in that period received their equipment in 18 weeks or less. NHS England is working with clinical commissioning groups to understand what is contributing to waits above 18 weeks, and consider what actions will help to reduce these.
In 2014, the Government introduced a new statutory framework requiring local authorities and clinical commissioning groups to jointly commission services for children with special educational needs and disability, across health, social care and education. Since 2014, £327 million has been given to local areas to support implementation of these new arrangements. This is in addition to the high needs budget for placements for pupils with complex special educational needs which is £6 billion this year – the highest it has ever been. Every local area’s arrangements are being inspected jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, in addition to their role inspecting providers.
The 2015 Spending Review made available more than £200 billion until 2020 for councils to deliver services to local communities, including for provision of social care services for disabled children. The Government is conducting a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities that will develop a robust, up-to-date approach to distributing funding across all local authorities in England at Local Government Finance Settlements, including for children’s services.