Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals similar to those set out in the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. The Government is implementing its own reform programme of adult social care with a 10 year vision that puts people at heart of adult social care. The Health & Care Act 2022 provides the relevant legislation for our plans for data, assurance and integration.
We have made good progress on reform by increasing sector digitisation, developing our approach for assurance of local authorities, and enhancing the collection and use of data. In spring 2023, we will publish a plan setting out how we will build on this progress.
The Department meets regularly with officials in the Devolved Administrations to explore how we can learn from our different approaches to adult social care reform.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that opportunities for retraining in green skills are available to workers currently employed in the oil and gas sector.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The North Sea Transition Deal, published in March 2021, commits to supporting up to 40,000 jobs, including decarbonising UK Continental Shelf jobs and across the Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and Hydrogen sectors. Government charged the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation with developing an Integrated People and Skills Strategy for this transition, which was published in May 2022. The Strategy commits the UK to a just transition to net zero by 2050.
There are approximately 118,400 direct and indirect workers in oil and gas, and 148,500 in the wider offshore energy sector. The number of offshore energy sector jobs is expected to increase to 350,000 by 2050. The Strategy estimates 90% of the existing UK oil and gas workforce has skills transferable to other offshore energy sectors. The Strategy commits to developing transition pathways to support offshore energy workers open to moving between sectors. This includes integration with the Armed Forces Covenant.
A digital skills passport is in development that allows people working in offshore energy to be occupationally competent across oil and gas, CCUS, Hydrogen, and offshore wind. According to the Green Jobs Taskforce report, published in July 2021, approximately 50%, or 100,000, of the UK’s offshore energy jobs by 2030 are predicted to be filled by workers transferring from oil and gas to offshore renewable roles, as well as new entrants from outside the sector. A 2020 survey of the oil and gas workforce indicated over half were interested in moving to renewable energy jobs, provided they were supported with the right training.
The UK Offshore Operators Association (OEUK), an offshore energy industry body, committed to developing a greater understanding of the offshore energy sector’s demographics in the North Sea Transition Deal’s one-year progress report. OEUK will publish guides on inclusivity, flexible and transparent recruitment, and promotion pathways. They will encourage reporting on ethnicity pay gaps in 2023. The diversity workstream will later go on to examine inclusion factors such as neurodiversity and social mobility.
The Department has a range of skills and training offers that can support workers looking to transition between oil and gas, and other offshore energy sectors.
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks that give people the opportunity to build sector-specific skills and access to an interview with an employer. Courses are currently available in energy skills such as offshore renewables, and offshore wind safety training.
Apprenticeships are available in a range of occupational standards and can give employers and employees the skills they need to grow. The apprenticeships offer includes training in a huge range of disciplines, from logistics and project management to engineering and manufacturing. Flexibilities within apprenticeships include accelerated apprenticeships, which support those with existing industry experience to complete more quickly by recognising their prior leaning.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedures are in place to support Afghan children who were separated from their families during the evacuation of Kabul and arrived in the UK (a) unaccompanied and (b) with other family members.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Following the evacuation of Kabul any children who we became aware of in the UK, that were not with their parents, have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis. When this has happened, we work in close collaboration with social services and the relevant local authority.
The safety and welfare of those who are resettling or relocating in the UK is of paramount importance to us as such we have comprehensive and robust safeguarding processes in place for those under our care.
The Government has been, and continues to, provide a warm welcome to Afghans arriving in the UK, providing accommodation, food, integration support, English lessons, and healthcare. All children who were evacuated under Op Pitting are now in school, and children who have joined us since then are either in school or being placed in schools. This means they are subject to the same statuary rights as any school child in the UK and the relevant support packages or services.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provisions are in place to provide emotional support for Afghan children who were separated from their families during the evacuation of Kabul and arrived in the UK (a) unaccompanied and (b) with other family members.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Following the evacuation of Kabul any children who we became aware of in the UK, that were not with their parents, have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis. When this has happened, we work in close collaboration with social services and the relevant local authority.
The safety and welfare of those who are resettling or relocating in the UK is of paramount importance to us as such we have comprehensive and robust safeguarding processes in place for those under our care.
The Government has been, and continues to, provide a warm welcome to Afghans arriving in the UK, providing accommodation, food, integration support, English lessons, and healthcare. All children who were evacuated under Op Pitting are now in school, and children who have joined us since then are either in school or being placed in schools. This means they are subject to the same statuary rights as any school child in the UK and the relevant support packages or services.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2023 to Question 143853 on Refugees: Afghanistan, what procedures are in place for unaccompanied children from Afghanistan to (a) make themselves known to and (b) seek support from the relevant authorities in the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Following the evacuation of Kabul any children who we became aware of in the UK, that were not with their parents, have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis. When this has happened, we work in close collaboration with social services and the relevant local authority.
The safety and welfare of those who are resettling or relocating in the UK is of paramount importance to us as such we have comprehensive and robust safeguarding processes in place for those under our care.
The Government has been, and continues to, provide a warm welcome to Afghans arriving in the UK, providing accommodation, food, integration support, English lessons, and healthcare. All children who were evacuated under Op Pitting are now in school, and children who have joined us since then are either in school or being placed in schools. This means they are subject to the same statuary rights as any school child in the UK and the relevant support packages or services.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that integrated care systems support the integration of (a) policies, (b) funding and (c) workforces between health and social care sectors.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health and Care Act 2022 set up systems and structures to reform how health and adult social care work together by putting partnership at the heart of planning. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for producing a five year joint forward plan with their partner trusts, foundation trusts, local authorities and other members. This plan should have regard to the integrated care strategy produced by the integrated care partnership (ICP). We are aware of 35 integrated care strategies that have been produced by ICPs in England.
We committed in the integration white paper ‘joining up care for people and places’ to review, and where necessary simplify, pooled budget arrangements to promote further integrated funding arrangements. This review is underway.
In July 2022 statutory integrated care systems (ICS) Strategy Guidance recommended ICSs take forward joint workforce planning with Local Authorities as a next step to integrated workforces.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish (a) reports published by and (b) minutes of any meetings since January 2019 of the Migration and Border Analysis Home Office Science Group which relate to the investigation into the benefits and merits of early intensive language courses for refugees, as referenced in the ad hoc query of 29 January 2019 to the European Migration Network made by the UK EMN National Point of Contact.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We recognise that the ability to speak English is key to helping refugees integrate into life in England, as well as to breaking down barriers to work and career progression. Home Office officials explored an early intensive language offer as part of a wider investigation into English language support for refugees. Exploration of the intensive offer was paused to avoid duplication with the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for Integration Fund (EFIF) launched by the Department for Levelling Up in August 2020. EFIF supported one of the key commitments in the 2018 Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper by supporting individuals to be able to meaningfully integrate and participate in society boosting English language proficiency. The programme trialled a new approach to funding ESOL, adopting a localised place-based design, providing community-based English language sessions, social mixing clubs and activities to individuals with little or no English.
In the same period, the Home Office funded the development of English language teaching resources to support refugees with their early integration.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Palantir has failed to meet in (a) part and (b) full the terms of any of its contracts with his Department since January 2020
Answered by Will Quince
The contract in place between NHS England and Palantir for provision of Foundry Services and the data management platform since 12 December 2020 has provided NHS England with the core capabilities as set out within the contract, including a core platform usage licence, Data Integration and Analytics Capabilities, Supply Management Capability, Immunisation and Vaccination Management Capability, Workforce Analytics Capability, Integrated Planning Tool and Adult Social Care Dashboard.
Throughout the delivery and provision of these capabilities, NHS England can confirm that Palantir has met its obligations as set out within the terms. Throughout the life of the contract, NHS England have not had cause to utilise a Performance Improvement Plan or manage underperformance of the contract.
Palantir are managed via NHS England Contract Management Framework to ensure that performance is monitored and measured, the National Health Service receives value for money, stakeholder expectations are managed, robust governance is in place, risks are actively managed and mitigated, delivery is ensured and the end user outcomes are maximised.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the UK's genomic sequencing capabilities to prepare for a future pandemic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Alongside the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) COVID-19 genomic sequencing and analysis, the organisation continues to maintain and develop genomic sequencing for gastrointestinal pathogens, tuberculosis, polio and monkeypox. UKHSA will continue to develop a pathogen genomics programme with available resources, to transform and enable wider pathogen analysis and, integration with clinical and public health data analysis to ensure that we are able to detect new, and emerging threats to protect the population and health services.
UKHSA is already engaged in some important global partnerships to ensure we have strong surveillance systems in place. We work with the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust and with other public health agencies, and we are supporting the development of a network of hubs to increase surveillance and enhance genomic analysis and awareness. This builds on the success of UKHSA’s New Variant Assessment Platform set up during the pandemic and now working in 14 countries and with six regional collaborators to improve early detection of COVID variants and pathogens of pandemic potential. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-variant-assessment-platform#overview
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children have been transferred under the mandatory provisions of the National Transfer Scheme since 23 November 2021, broken down by local authority.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The National Transfer Scheme (NTS) transferred 3,148 children transferred to local authorities between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2022. This compares to 739 children transferred in the same time frame in the previous year, a 326% increase.
With the increase in the numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC), we are working closely with local authorities to find more appropriate long-term care placements under the NTS. We are also providing local authorities with children’s services with £15,000 for every eligible young person they take into their care from a dedicated UASC hotel, or the Reception and Safe Care Service in Kent, by the end of February 2023.
National Transfer Scheme data is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rasi-resettlement-asylum-support-and-integration-data-q3-2022 This data is broken down by local authority however as the data is published quarterly it is not possibly to split out the number of transfers from a specific date mid quarter.
The Home Office has robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. The young people in hotels are not detained and are free to leave the accommodation, in line with standard local authority accommodation for looked after children. To minimise the risk of a child going missing, records of children leaving and retuning to the hotel are kept and monitored. Support workers accompany children off site on activities and social excursions, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified. 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.
When any young person goes missing the ‘missing persons protocol’ is followed and led by our directly engaged social workers. The MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol supports safeguarding planning and prevention. The local authority chairs a multi-agency forum for any young person missing from a hotel, in conjunction with the police and Home Office. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.
Intelligence gathered in relation to young people who went missing from hotels and are subsequently located is fed into the appropriate agencies for consideration.