Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans NHS England has to establish performance floors setting out minimum levels of vaccination coverage in different areas of the country, in line with the commitment in its Putting Patients First business plan.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has a specific role to commission those public health services set out in the Section 7A public health functions agreement 2016-17, including immunisation programmes and to hold to account providers to ensure that they deliver the contracts that have been agreed. The agreement sets out specific outputs and outcomes to be achieved by NHS England including performance indicators that outline minimum levels of vaccination coverage for different programmes. NHS England publishes national service specifications outlining the minimum levels of vaccinations expected, which in turn are put into contracts with providers at local level.
The Section 7A agreement requires NHS England to at least maintain, or improve, national levels of performance on existing services, while also implementing planned changes. It also includes an ambition to reduce local variation in performance between different geographical areas.
There are no plans to review incentives, however a number are already in place. For example, within primary care general practitioner (GP) settings, some vaccination services such as flu for those with diabetes have quality outcome framework indicators attached, whereby GPs are rewarded for good practice. Also, as part of the contracts given outside of the primary care settings, local teams can develop Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payments that link a proportion of providers' income to the achievement of local quality improvement goals.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to carry out a review of incentives and reimbursement for the delivery of routine immunisation programmes.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has a specific role to commission those public health services set out in the Section 7A public health functions agreement 2016-17, including immunisation programmes and to hold to account providers to ensure that they deliver the contracts that have been agreed. The agreement sets out specific outputs and outcomes to be achieved by NHS England including performance indicators that outline minimum levels of vaccination coverage for different programmes. NHS England publishes national service specifications outlining the minimum levels of vaccinations expected, which in turn are put into contracts with providers at local level.
The Section 7A agreement requires NHS England to at least maintain, or improve, national levels of performance on existing services, while also implementing planned changes. It also includes an ambition to reduce local variation in performance between different geographical areas.
There are no plans to review incentives, however a number are already in place. For example, within primary care general practitioner (GP) settings, some vaccination services such as flu for those with diabetes have quality outcome framework indicators attached, whereby GPs are rewarded for good practice. Also, as part of the contracts given outside of the primary care settings, local teams can develop Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payments that link a proportion of providers' income to the achievement of local quality improvement goals.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that the section 7a agreement between the Department of Health and NHS England is automatically updated to reflect recommendations made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Section 7A public health functions agreement is updated on an annual basis, at which point any new recommendations from relevant expert committees, including the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI), are taken into account.
If the JCVI makes a recommendation which is urgent, for example in the case of a public health emergency, the agreement can be amended in-year by agreement between the Department and NHS England.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS trusts are responsible for the funding or provision of incontinence pads to residents of (1) care homes for personal care, and (2) care homes with nursing care.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The legislation under which NHS England and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) commission services requires them to arrange for the provision of services for which they are responsible, to such extent as they consider necessary to meet all reasonable requirements.
For CCGs, this includes offering continence services as part of their obligation to provide community health. Although CCGs often focus on prevention and treatment, it is expected any standard continence service should include access to products. The criteria for the provisioning of continence products are set by individual CCGs. To support CCGs, NHS England has recently published new guidance to help improve the care and experience of children and adults with continence issues. This encourages much greater collaboration between health and social care.
A copy of the guidance Excellence in continence care is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what policy the NHS has about protecting the mental health of its workforce.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England’s recent announcement "A healthy NHS workforce", aims to raise staff awareness and understanding of mental health issues and ensure staff have access to help, support and treatment when they need it.
“A healthy NHS workforce” includes, for example, line manager training and, providing NHS staff rapid access to talking therapies. This is currently being tested as part of the Healthy Workforce programme led by NHS England.
NHS Employers is working with NHS England and Public Health England on improving NHS staff health and wellbeing. They offer extensive information and tools for managers to support their employees who are demonstrating signs of mental health problems, or returning to work following periods of sickness absence.
These resources, which are only available online, can be found at the following link:
www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/retain-and-improve/staff-experience/health-work-and-wellbeing/protecting-staff-and-preventing-ill-health/supporting-line-managers/managers-guide-on-supporting-workplace-mental-health/supporting-staff-who-are-experiencing-mental-health-problems
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many NHS employees have attempted, or committed, suicide in each year between 2009 and 2014.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government has not assessed how many National Health Service employees have attempted, or committed, suicide in each year between 2009 and 2014. The Department does not collect this information centrally.
However, the Department is not complacent and commissions NHS Employers to support trusts to improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their employees, which is the responsibility of employers across the NHS in England.
NHS Employers is working with NHS England and Public Health England on NHS England’s recently announced “A healthy NHS workforce", a commitment in its Five Year Forward View “which includes increasing awareness of and addressing mental health issues affecting NHS staff”. A copy of the announcement is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what cost was incurred by the NHS due to days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers in each year between 2009 and 2014.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The number of days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers between 2009 and 2014 were:
England | Full Time Equivalent Days Lost to Sickness Absence (includes non-working days) | Full Time Equivalent Days Available (includes non-working days) | Sickness Absence Rate |
2009-10 | 16,745,315 | 380,199,666 | 4.40% |
2010-11 | 15,947,054 | 383,278,845 | 4.16% |
2011-12 | 15,555,507 | 377,908,880 | 4.12% |
2012-13 | 15,947,518 | 376,187,354 | 4.24% |
2013-14 | 15,385,468 | 378,691,376 | 4.06% |
2014-15 | 16,423,722 | 386,388,483 | 4.25% |
Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre
The Government does not record the cost incurred by the National Health Service due to days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers.
Employers are responsible for reducing the days lost through sickness of their staff. The Department supports the NHS by commissioning NHS Employers to provide trusts with advice, guidance and good practice on improving NHS staff health and wellbeing which is available on an online only resource at:
NHS Employers is also working with NHS England and Public Health England on a £5 million initiative to improve NHS staff health announced in its Five Year Forward View. A copy of the ‘A healthy NHS workforce’ announcement is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many days were lost through the sickness of healthcare workers in each year between 2009 and 2014.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The number of days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers between 2009 and 2014 were:
England | Full Time Equivalent Days Lost to Sickness Absence (includes non-working days) | Full Time Equivalent Days Available (includes non-working days) | Sickness Absence Rate |
2009-10 | 16,745,315 | 380,199,666 | 4.40% |
2010-11 | 15,947,054 | 383,278,845 | 4.16% |
2011-12 | 15,555,507 | 377,908,880 | 4.12% |
2012-13 | 15,947,518 | 376,187,354 | 4.24% |
2013-14 | 15,385,468 | 378,691,376 | 4.06% |
2014-15 | 16,423,722 | 386,388,483 | 4.25% |
Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre
The Government does not record the cost incurred by the National Health Service due to days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers.
Employers are responsible for reducing the days lost through sickness of their staff. The Department supports the NHS by commissioning NHS Employers to provide trusts with advice, guidance and good practice on improving NHS staff health and wellbeing which is available on an online only resource at:
NHS Employers is also working with NHS England and Public Health England on a £5 million initiative to improve NHS staff health announced in its Five Year Forward View. A copy of the ‘A healthy NHS workforce’ announcement is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to address the stigma of mental health problems amongst healthcare workers.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government included in its Mandate to NHS England an objective for them to “make partnership a success”. This includes “championing the Time to Change campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues and reduce stigma, including in the NHS workforce”.
In taking this forward, NHS England recently announced the "A healthy NHS workforce" initiative. This aims to raise staff awareness and understanding of mental health issues, helping to ensure they have access to help, support and treatment when they need it. A copy of the announcement is attached.
“A healthy NHS workforce” includes, for example, line manager trainingand, providing NHS staff rapid access to talking therapies. Thisis currently being tested as part of the Healthy Workforce programme led by NHS England.
In addition, NHS Employers have launched the How are you feeling NHS? toolkit. This has been developed with NHS staff to help bridge a gap in understanding and enable them to: talk openly and regularly about their emotional health; assess the impact emotional wellbeing has on themselves, their colleagues and patients, and help with action planning to enable more good days than bad. The online only resource can be found at:
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what checks and balances are in place to ensure that the 2015–16 Disabled Facilities Grant allocation is spent in the prescribed areas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Helping disabled people to live independently in their own homes for longer through adaptations remains a key priority for this Government. The Government will have invested just over a billion pounds into the Disabled Facilities Grant between 2011-12 and 2015-16. This has delivered around 200,000 adaptations to the homes of disabled people. The Disabled Facilities Grant is a non-ringfenced capital grant paid via the Better Care Fund to local housing authorities. Better Care Fund commissioners are required to confirm they have passed the Disabled Facilities Grant funding on to local housing authorities in their quarterly returns to NHS England. This enables local housing authorities to continue to meet their statutory duty to provide adaptations to the homes of those disabled people who qualify.