Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which (1) benefits, and (2) programmes, provide adult social care to adults of pension age, including (a) caseload by programme, and (b) total expenditure by programme.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care is a devolved service and local authorities are responsible for ensuring that people with eligible needs receive support. By the end of 2022/23, 629,050 people were accessing long-term support from councils in England to meet their care needs, 370,110 of whom were people aged 65 years old or over.
Total public spending on adult social care was £22.9 billion in 2022/23. This spend is supported by local government revenue and central government grant, not from the benefits system. Since autumn 2022, the Government has made available up to £8.1 billion in additional funding to support adult social care and discharge over 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the budget of NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS funded Nursing Care is spent on pensioners.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not collect data on how much NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care funding is spent on ‘pensioners’, defined here as someone who is in receipt of a pension. Determination of CHC eligibility is based on a comprehensive assessment of care needs rather than any specific medical condition, disease or diagnosis.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many international nurses NHS Trusts have recruited in the past 12 months; and of those, how many have been permitted to work.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the international nurses who arrived in the UK in the past 12 months have had an Objective Structured Clinical Examination; and how many have passed that examination.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held in the format requested. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and nursing associates in England. It sets the standards that registrants must meet to demonstrate that they are capable of practising safely and effectively in those professions.
Information on the number of professionals sitting and passing the Objective Structured Clinical Examination is published on the NMC’s website in an online-only format.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what outside organisations are currently providing (1) training, and (2) guidance on workplace culture and behaviour, to the House of Lords; and what is the annual cost of these services.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The tables below provide a breakdown of suppliers, services and costs in the current financial year currently providing (1) training and (2) guidance on workplace culture and behaviour. In the interests of openness I have interpreted “workplace culture and behaviour” broadly; for example, the Leadership Development Programme will contribute to improved leadership capabilities in the Administration and therefore to the overall workplace culture.
Development events
Supplier | Type of work | Cost |
Challenge | Valuing Everyone (ICGS) training | £23,640 |
T-Three Consulting Ltd | Leadership Development Programme | £57,530 |
3E Coaching Ltd | Executive Coaching | £6,350 |
Eliesha Training Ltd | Recruitment Panel Training | £3,215 |
Personal Strengths Ltd | Psychological Assessment (profiling tool) | £2,997 |
Geri McKenna Ltd | Executive Coaching | £3,750 |
CX People Ltd | People Skills (PDR, Applications and Interviews & Quality Conversations) | £2,100 |
Inclusive Employers | Two recorded webinars for Black History Month available to all colleagues:
| £1,350 (+ VAT) |
Inclusive Employers | LGBT+ Allies webinar | £750 (+VAT) |
Business Disability Forum | Disability and Accessibility Focus Groups | £3,780.00 (inc VAT) |
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Annual Membership subscriptions
Supplier | Type of work | Cost |
Inclusive Employers | Annual Membership includes access to: Guidance documents, expertise and professional advice Best practice from a network of other employers Webinars and training opportunities | £2,700.00 (inc VAT) |
Inclusive Companies | Annual Membership/ Recruitment Board & Benchmark, includes access to: UK Top 50 Employers Benchmarking Index Round-table best practice sharing events Webinars and guidance. | £3,750.00 (+ VAT) |
Stonewall | Annual Membership includes access to: Online and in-person advice on policy and best practice in LGBT inclusion Proud Employers LGBT+ recruitment board Stonewall Employers Benchmark. | £2,500 (+VAT) |
The information provided above refers to centralised spend on learning and development interventions related to culture and behaviour. Individual offices have localised training budgets, and we do not hold a full data set relating to additional individual office spend in this and other areas.
In addition to the externally-provided events set out in the tables, we run other programmes and interventions using our internal resources to help develop our culture and behaviours. These include mentoring, team and individual profiling tools, workshops (including on values and behaviours) and internal coaching. We continually review our core learning and development offer to ensure it supports our strategic objectives and provides value for money, including evaluating our partner relationships and existing contracts.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many staff are employed in the House of Lords on work related to diversity and inclusion; and how much such work costs.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The House of Lords Inclusion and Diversity Team is made up of three full-time professionals. The annual cost (inclusive of employer on-costs such as National Insurance, Pension, Apprenticeship Levy etc) is £172,640.15.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to establish a long-term workforce strategy for the NHS and social care; and what plans they have to present an annual report to both Houses on (1) health, and (2) care.
Answered by Lord Kamall
In July 2021, we commissioned Health Education England (HEE) to review long term strategic trends for the health and social care workforce. This will ensure we have the right, skills, values and behaviours across NHS and social care for the next 15 years. This will also include registered professionals working in social care.
The Health and Care Bill includes a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to produce a report describing the system in place for assessing and meeting the workforce needs of the health system in England. NHS England and HEE must assist in the preparation of this report if requested to do so by the Secretary of State. This report is required to be published at a minimum of every five years.
The Government recently announced at least £500 million over three years to support and develop the social care workforce, fund initiatives to support mental health and wellbeing and introduce further reforms to improve recruitment. We will work with care users, providers and other partners to develop more detail on the plans for reform of adult social care and publish further detail in a white paper for reform later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the figures published by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services on 23 November 2020 which show that 19,510 children have been removed from school registers since the start of the 2020/21 academic year; what steps they are taking to identify those children; and what assessment they have made of whether those children are (1) being educated from home, and (2) at risk of abuse.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We support the right of parents to educate their children at home – most will educate their children well, sometimes in challenging circumstances. However, we cannot overlook the rising numbers of home-educated children. For some, home education can mean that children are not provided a suitable education or that they are invisible to the services and professionals there to keep them safe and supported.
The safeguarding of children who are electively home educated sits within a local authorities’ safeguarding duties set out in the Children Act 1989. A failure to provide suitable home education could constitute a safeguarding risk, because unsuitable or inadequate education can also impair a child’s intellectual, emotional, social, or behavioural development.
The government has substantially strengthened its guidance to local authorities on exercising their powers in relation to elective home education. The revised guidance, which was published in April 2019, sets out the steps that local authorities should take to satisfy themselves that the education provided by parents at home is suitable, and the actions that they can take if they are not satisfied. This guidance will be reviewed again in due course.
We remain committed to a registration system for children who are not in school. Further details on a proposed registration system will be in the government response to the Children Not in School consultation, which we intend to publish in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Independent Office for Police Conduct took 20 months to contact Sir Richard Henriques following his recommendation for an independent inquiry.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Following Sir Richard Henriques’ review in 2016 of the handling of Operation Midland, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) referred a number of allegations to the then Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
On 7 October 2019, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published the report of its investigation into three of the officers involved in Operation Midland. This report includes learning recommendations for a number of bodies, including the IOPC itself.
Having an effective police watchdog to investigate allegations of wrongdoing is crucial to public confidence. The Government welcomes recent improvements by IOPC and further plans to improve. The Government will also introduce major reforms in early 2020, aimed at increasing the effectiveness, accountability and proportionality of the police complaints and discipline systems.
At the Home Secretary’s request, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) are carrying out an inspection of the MPS to ensure learning from Sir Richard’s report and the IOPC’s investigation has been taken on board. The Government will decide whether any further steps are necessary following publication of HMICFRS’ report.
Asked by: Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by Sir Richard Henriques, An Independent Review of the Metropolitan Police Service's handling of non-recent sexual offence investigations alleged against persons of public prominence, published on 4 October, whether they consider the Independent Office for Police Conduct to be fit-for-purpose; and if so, why.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Following Sir Richard Henriques’ review in 2016 of the handling of Operation Midland, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) referred a number of allegations to the then Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
On 7 October 2019, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published the report of its investigation into three of the officers involved in Operation Midland. This report includes learning recommendations for a number of bodies, including the IOPC itself.
Having an effective police watchdog to investigate allegations of wrongdoing is crucial to public confidence. The Government welcomes recent improvements by IOPC and further plans to improve. The Government will also introduce major reforms in early 2020, aimed at increasing the effectiveness, accountability and proportionality of the police complaints and discipline systems.
At the Home Secretary’s request, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) are carrying out an inspection of the MPS to ensure learning from Sir Richard’s report and the IOPC’s investigation has been taken on board. The Government will decide whether any further steps are necessary following publication of HMICFRS’ report.