Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve the mental health and wellbeing of babies and very young children, especially given the evidence surrounding the cumulative impact of poor mental health outcomes that begin early in life.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2021, the Government published The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days, a copy of which is attached. This vision sets out six action areas for improving support for families during the 1,001 critical days to ensure every baby in England is given the best possible start in life, regardless of background.
The Government is investing approximately £300 million to improve support for families through the joint Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme. The programme is implementing many elements of the Best Start for Life Vision and is delivering a step change in outcomes for babies, children and their parents and carers in 75 local authorities in England, including those with high levels of deprivation. This investment includes £100 million for bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support. Many local authorities without funding have also chosen to implement elements of the vision.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made, if any, in reaching a settlement in cases of individuals who have developed (1) blood clots, and (2) life-changing conditions, such as transverse myelitis, after receiving the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine; and what assessment they have made of the level of payment being awarded under the Vaccine Damage Payment scheme.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government knows there are some extremely rare cases where individuals have sadly experienced harm following vaccination against COVID-19, and recognises how difficult this is for those individuals and their families. It would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases, including where there may be ongoing litigation that may involve the Government.
As part of business-as-usual work, the Government reviews the payment amount of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS), alongside all routine policy on a regular basis. There are no plans at this time to change the level of payment awarded under the VDPS.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there was a different COVID-19 testing strategy for care homes for (1) the elderly, and (2) working age adults with learning disabilities; and if so, why.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths have been reported within learning disability services since 5 March, broken down by (1) race, (2) age, and (3) gender, compared with the equivalent period last year. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England can confirm that five people with a learning disability, autism or both have died within a specialist inpatient setting between 5 March and 30 April 2020, the latest data available. This includes people who were transferred from a specialist inpatient setting to an acute setting and subsequently died. In the same period last year less than five people died within a specialist inpatient setting. NHS England hold demographic data on gender, age and ethnicity of these patients, but cannot provide them due to the low patient numbers leading to a high chance of patient identification.
Public Health England are undertaking a thorough analysis of data on the deaths of people with learning disabilities, including looking at age, gender and ethnicity of people who have died. This will draw on data published by NHS England and the Care Quality Commission to understand the impact of COVID-19 on this group of people and the specific risks that they may face from the virus.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they estimate they will be able to quantify the number of COVID-19 deaths, in particular the number of deaths of those from at risk groups, including people with learning disabilities, regardless of whether confirmation by diagnostic tests was possible.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The number of deaths of various at-risk groups has been published by the Office for National Statistics. This include a breakdown of deaths by the most common underlying conditions, ethnicity, age and occupation.
NHS England publishes data on deaths of patients with a learning disability in England (LeDeR programme) who have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are considered to have had COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the guidance that allows people in hospital who have (1) dementia, (2) a learning disability, or (3) autism, to be allowed to have a visitor during any hospital admission also applies in care homes.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Specific guidance has been produced for visiting care homes. This can be found in the Admission and Care of Residents during COVID-19 Incident in a Care Home guidance which is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what personal protective equipment they plan to provide to personal assistants and carers working with disabled adults, including those who are in receipt of continuing health care funding; and when any such equipment will be provided.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Care home and home care providers are being issued with personal and protective equipment. We are also engaging with key health and social care stakeholders to understand what more we can do to help the ensure continuity of supply.
Additionally, we are working with wholesalers to help ensure a longer-term supply of all personal protective equipment, including gloves, aprons, facemasks and hand sanitiser, to all care sectors.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to raise awareness of vacancies in the care sector resulting from COVID-19-related international travel restrictions; and the opportunities that this may provide people who will be made redundant during the pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are working closely across Government with local authorities and providers to make sure the adult social care sector is prepared and able to respond to COVID-19. We know that the adult social care sector will need to recruit more people to ensure it can operate at maximum capacity, both to fill existing vacancies, but also to ensure there is sufficient cover for those in the workforce who will need to self-isolate because they are unwell, or who need to undertake more stringent social distancing measures because they are in a high risk group. We are planning to adapt our current national recruitment campaign ‘When you care, every day makes a difference’ for the current context, while continuing to highlight opportunities for career development and progression.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional funding they plan to provide to Clinical Commissioning Groups and social services to enable frontier workers who are personal assistants or carers for disabled people, including those in receipt of continuing health care funding, to remain in this country between shifts in order to not deplete the social care workforce.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are working closely across Government with local authorities and providers to make sure the adult social care sector is prepared and able to respond to COVID-19. Local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and providers should have appropriate arrangements in place to manage their workforce. We expect them to work together to make sure that our valued social care staff, including frontier workers, can continue working wherever possible. There is a £5 billion contingency fund to support the National Health Service and local authorities to meet the additional costs they will face, and to ensure they can maintain adult social care provision, given the additional pressures on the sector caused by COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Hollins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, EU frontier workers working and paying tax and National Insurance in the UK will be entitled to NHS treatment.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
In a ‘no deal’ European Union exit, EU citizens living in another state but travelling regularly to and from the United Kingdom as a frontier worker on or before exit day will continue to be entitled for National Health Service treatment without charge.
The Government is aiming to agree with the EU or with individual Member States continuing the existing reciprocal healthcare arrangements after exit day until at least 31 December 2020. Where such agreement is reached, an EU citizen who becomes a frontier worker after exit day would be eligible for NHS treatment without charge, under the terms of that arrangement. Where no agreement is reached, a frontier worker from that country may be charged for their care unless an exemption applies or the service that they are accessing is one which is free for everyone.