Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the extent to which all staff within the NHS have access to occupational health services, and (2) the benefits of occupational health services to staff within the NHS.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Responsibility for the provision of occupational health services lies with National Health Service employing organisations, who have a duty of care to staff linked to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Staff are also covered by the NHS Constitution for the right to work in healthy and safe working conditions.
The People Plan’s NHS Growing Occupational Health Programme strengthens support for occupational health as a preventative approach to health and wellbeing. Occupational health can improve attendance by addressing causes of sickness absence and support staff to return to work. The current benefits of occupational health include rapid access to evidence-based mental health interventions and tailored health and wellbeing offers for NHS staff.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the priorities for the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities will be published; and what prioritisation will be given to work-related health.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) aims to ensure that people can live more of life in good health and address health disparities. The OHID will develop partnerships across Government, communities, industry and employers, on the factors that contribute to health, such as work, housing and education. The OHID also incorporates working with the Department for Work and Pensions via the joint Work and Health Unit. We will set out further actions on health disparities in a white paper in due course.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals sentenced to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) since 2005 died whilst serving their sentence in a secure hospital; and what were the causes of death in each case.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The information requested is not collected.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the commitments made in People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform white paper, published on 1 December, what plans they have to set out a strategy to increase the supply of supported housing for older people.
Answered by Lord Kamall
We will continue to incentivise the supply of supported housing for older and disabled people through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, with £213 million available over the next three years. This is alongside a new £300 million investment to connect housing with health and care and increase the stock of new supported housing.
We are working closely with stakeholders private and social sectors to inform future cross-Government action to stimulate a specialist housing market that delivers effectively. We will work in partnership with local authorities, housing providers and others to design our new investment and will share further detail with interested parties as this work develops.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the average response time for each of the ambulance services in England in (1) April, (2) July, and (3) October, for (a) emergency, and (b) routine, calls.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The information is not collected in the format requested. Ambulance response times are measured across four categories as follows:
- Category 1 - life threatening;
- Category 2 - emergency;
- Category 3 - urgent; and
- Category 4 - non-urgent.
Data on the mean response times in hours, minutes and seconds for Category 1 to 4 calls for each ambulance service in England in April, July and October 2021, is attached due to the size of the data.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 7 October (HL2777), what advice they have given to primary care providers seeking financial support to give initial or booster vaccines in areas which have a high proportion of the population with English as a second language where (1) translation services, and (2) longer vaccination appointments, may be necessary.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Primary care providers of local COVID-19 vaccination services should ensure that patients have access to translation and British Sign Language services as required to support consent, mental capacity and clinical assessments as appropriate. Primary care providers can request support for reasonable additional costs from their local commissioner, which will assess if claims for such costs are reasonable and represent value for money.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 15 September (HL2404), what steps they are taking to support primary care services in England offering both (1) initial COVID-19 vaccinations, and (2) the COVID-19 booster vaccination.
Answered by Lord Kamall
To ensure the vaccination programme is delivered sustainably, NHS England and NHS Improvement recommended that local health systems should spread capacity across community pharmacy, vaccination centres and general practice. Additional funding has been made available to support general practices to deliver the COVID-19 vaccination programme, including for the Primary Care Network (PCN) Clinical Director role and incentives to support vaccination programme delivery goals.
Throughout the vaccination programme, providers have been able to access centrally sourced workforce, including unregistered vaccinators through the lead employer model, using a national protocol as appropriate to support vaccination delivery. This workforce offer is continuing in the autumn booster programme and includes volunteers.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the Carr-Hill funding formula for primary health care is able to address the additional pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, the pressures on primary care practices in areas of low vaccine take-up; and what steps they intend to take as a result.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Carr-Hill funding formula adjusts the global sum payment to general practitioner (GP) contractors. The formula weights a practice’s patient list against a number of factors which reflect differences in the age and sex composition of the practice demographic, additional pressures generated by differential rates of patient turnover, morbidity, and the impact of geographical location. The Carr-Hill funding formula does not reflect changes in demand unless they are a result of a change in patient demographic or unavoidable practice costs, and so does not directly address COVID-19 related pressures or areas of low vaccine take-up.
To ensure that general practices are able to meet demand generated by the pandemic, we have made available an additional ringfenced £270 million from November 2020 until September 2021, to ensure GPs and their teams are able to continue to support all patients.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make it a commitment that the Social Care Taskforce addresses the care and support needs of working age disabled people.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities and learning difficulties will be one of the focuses for the new Social Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce.
The Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce will ensure the delivery of two packages of support that the Government has put in place for the care sector and will be supported by several advisory groups including one on support for people with learning disabilities and autism.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they plan to develop a national COVID-19 test and tracing system; how that system will operate; how that system will be held accountable for its work; and what will be the role of local Directors of Public Health and related professionals.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are developing a new test and trace programme which will bring together an app, expanded web and phone-based contact tracing, and swab testing for those with potential COVID-19 symptoms.
If someone installs the National Health Service COVID-19 app, it will start logging the distance between their phone and other phones nearby that also have the app installed. It measures this distance using a form of Bluetooth that is less energy hungry than normal Bluetooth. This log of proximity information will be stored securely on the person’s phone. If a person becomes unwell with symptoms of COVID-19, they can report this to the NHS via the app which will mean that other app users who have come into significant contact with that person over the previous few days can be alerted and provided with advice if appropriate.
The first phase of the app rollout is taking place on the Isle of Wight. This will ensure the app is functioning as expected and will help us to see how it works best alongside the web and phone-based systems and to ensure that it dovetails with the testing programme.
Ministers are accountable to Parliament for the Department’s response to COVID-19, including the test and trace programme.
Directors of Public Health and their teams will be key to the local delivery of the test and trace programme.