Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether budgets for adult social care for 2023–23 and 2023–24 were adjusted to take account of (1) increased energy and fuel costs, and (2) the need to make greater use of agency staff due to high vacancy rates.
Answered by Lord Markham
Local authorities are responsible for setting budgets for adult social care. They are best placed to assess local resources and need. The funding we have made available gives them the flexibility to do so in their local budgets.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of vacant posts in the adult social care sector from their current high level.
Answered by Lord Markham
We are running a national recruitment campaign until 31 March 2023 to encourage more people to consider a rewarding role in care. In February 2022, we made care workers eligible for the Health and Care Visa and added them to the Shortage Occupation list.
We are making available £15 million in 2023/24 to help local areas establish support arrangements for international recruitment and improve workforce capacity in adult social care. In addition, the £500 million adult social care discharge fund announced last September can be used by local authorities for the recruitment and retention of the social care workforce.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the report by The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry False economy? How NHS medicine procurement threatens the UK’s Life Sciences growth engine, published on 23 February, that the continued current high rebate rates under the voluntary and statutory schemes for branded medicines during the next five years would mean foregoing £50 billion in GDP and £17.9 billion in tax revenues as a result of lost research and development investment; and what are their estimates of the value of the potential lost investment in this sector.
Answered by Lord Markham
The Department carefully considers all evidence in the public domain on matters relating to the growth and competitiveness of the United Kingdom’s life science sector, including the recent report by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. This occurs in combination with broad engagement with individual companies, the National Health Service and with charities and patient representatives and will continue moving forward as part of the delivery of the Government’s Life Science Vision.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 7 February (HL5233), what assessment they have made of the reports by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (1) False economy? How NHS medicine procurement threatens the UK’s Life Sciences growth engine, published on 23 February, and (2) At the crossroads: how a new UK medicines deal can deliver for patients, the NHS and the economy, published on 1 March; and what assessment they have made of the findings of those reports that the present NHS medicine procurement system threatens the growth of the UK Life Sciences sector.
Answered by Lord Markham
The Department carefully considers all evidence in the public domain on matters relating to the growth and competitiveness of the United Kingdom’s life science sector, including the recent report by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. This occurs in combination with broad engagement with individual companies, the National Health Service and with charities and patient representatives and will continue moving forward as part of the delivery of the Government’s Life Science Vision.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 6 February (HL5236), when they will publish their final impact assessment on changes to the Statutory Scheme for Branded Medicines.
Answered by Lord Markham
The Government published its final impact assessment of updates to the statutory scheme on 2 March 2023. A copy of the impact assessment is attached.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what arrangements there are for the registration and regulation of private fostering agencies; whether there is a statutory basis for such registration and regulation; and whether other agencies and local authorities are informed of misconduct by an individual foster carer provided by a private fostering agency.
Answered by Baroness Barran
All independent fostering agencies (IFAs) are registered with Ofsted under the Care Standards Act 2000 and must meet the legal requirements set out in the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011. IFAs are inspected by Ofsted under the Social Care Common Inspection Framework (SCCIF) on a three-year inspection cycle.
Under the National Minimum Standards IFAs have a duty to ensure the welfare of the children in care and a duty to work effectively in partnership with other agencies concerned with child protection, such as the responsible authority, schools, hospitals and general practitioners.
Serious incidents must be reported by IFAs to Ofsted, including any serious complaints about an approved foster parent. Local authorities must notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review panel, and by extension the department and Ofsted, within five working days of becoming aware of a serious incident. These incidents are where abuse or neglect is known or suspected.
If a foster carer’s approval to foster is terminated, a copy of the notice must be sent to the responsible authority for any child placed by another local authority, and to the relevant local authority if the foster carer lives outside the area of the fostering service.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress Ofsted has made on the (1) registration, (2) regulation and (3) inspection of religious schools such as (a) madrassas, (b) yeshivas, and (c) Sunday schools where concerns have been raised about the appropriateness of the material being taught to children at such places; and what powers Ofsted has to take action, as necessary.
Answered by Baroness Barran
Out-of-school settings, such as supplementary religious schools, are not regulated under education or childcare law and are therefore not required to register with the department or Ofsted. However, the department remains committed to ensuring that children are safeguarded across all education settings and are working closely with key safeguarding partners, sector representatives, and parent groups to develop proposals for how we might further enhance safeguarding in this sector. The department will look to consult on such proposals later this year. We will be publishing updated safeguarding guidance for providers and parents, as well as a new e-learning package aimed at strengthening providers’ understanding of the arrangements they should have in place to keep children safe.
Any education setting which makes full-time provision to five or more pupils of compulsory school age (or one or more such pupils who is looked after or has an education, health and care plan), is not maintained by a local authority and is not a non-maintained special school is required to register with the department as an independent school. It is a criminal offence to conduct an educational setting which meets the definition of an independent school if this is not registered with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.
The government has been working proactively since 2016 to identify, investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute those operating unregistered independent schools. Between 1 January 2016 and 31 August 2022, Ofsted issued warning notices to 132 settings that may be operating as unregistered schools (this includes all settings including those with a secular or faith ethos). Of those settings, 81 changed their operation to comply with legislation, 21 closed and 16 registered. There have been six successful prosecutions against those operating unregistered schools and there are several ongoing investigations.
If safeguarding concerns are raised about a specific setting, we expect local authorities to intervene, as they are legally responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in their areas, regardless of the educational setting they attend.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made, if any, in (1) registering, and (2) regulating, the home tuition of children to ensure that they (a) are taught a balanced curriculum, and (b) are able to secure recognised national qualifications.
Answered by Baroness Barran
The department remains committed to introducing statutory local authority registers for children not in school, as well as a duty for local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. The department will legislate for these at the next suitable opportunity, to help local authorities undertake their existing duties to ensure all children receive a suitable education and are safe, regardless of where they are educated. However, local authorities’ existing powers and duties, if used in the way set out in our guidance, are enough for a local authority to determine whether provision is suitable.
Elective home education needs to be suitable, although there is no requirement to follow the national curriculum, nor are parents required to enter children for public examinations. However, if the home education does consist of one or more of these, that would constitute strong evidence that education was ‘suitable’ in terms of section 7 of the Education Act 1996.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the sustainability of a market cap model as used in the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access.
Answered by Lord Markham
As part of our preparations to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry a mutually beneficial successor scheme to the current Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS), the Government is considering all relevant issues such as the use of a cap on allowed sales.
In the December 2022 consultation on the impact of changes to the Statutory Scheme for Branded Medicines, which included an associated Impact Assessment, we consulted on the scheme’s methodology which is based around ensuring we continue to control growth at a rate of 1.1% and maintain broad commercial equivalence with VPAS. The Department has received materials from the pharmaceutical industry, Trade Associations and from individual companies about a wide range of issues relevant to both the Voluntary and Statutory Schemes for branded medicines pricing. We will be considering this evidence over the coming weeks, and will publish our response alongside the final Impact Assessment.
With regard to increasing medicine spend, the Secretary of State met with industry Trade Associations in 2022 and was clear that, whilst we cannot agree any change to the current scheme, the Government is open to ideas about how a successor to VPAS should operate from 2024 onwards and that we will work with industry to agree a successor scheme that supports better patient outcomes, ensures the sustainability of National Health Service spend on branded medicines, and enables a strong United Kingdom life sciences industry.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to increasing medicine spending in line with the overall increase in NHS funding.
Answered by Lord Markham
As part of our preparations to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry a mutually beneficial successor scheme to the current Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS), the Government is considering all relevant issues such as the use of a cap on allowed sales.
In the December 2022 consultation on the impact of changes to the Statutory Scheme for Branded Medicines, which included an associated Impact Assessment, we consulted on the scheme’s methodology which is based around ensuring we continue to control growth at a rate of 1.1% and maintain broad commercial equivalence with VPAS. The Department has received materials from the pharmaceutical industry, Trade Associations and from individual companies about a wide range of issues relevant to both the Voluntary and Statutory Schemes for branded medicines pricing. We will be considering this evidence over the coming weeks, and will publish our response alongside the final Impact Assessment.
With regard to increasing medicine spend, the Secretary of State met with industry Trade Associations in 2022 and was clear that, whilst we cannot agree any change to the current scheme, the Government is open to ideas about how a successor to VPAS should operate from 2024 onwards and that we will work with industry to agree a successor scheme that supports better patient outcomes, ensures the sustainability of National Health Service spend on branded medicines, and enables a strong United Kingdom life sciences industry.