Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform white paper, published on 1 December 2021, whether the target for 80% of CQC registered social care providers to have a digital social care record in place by March 2024 was met.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have increased the adoption of digital social care records (DSCRs) by Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered providers from 40% in December 2021, to at least 63% in February 2024. In January 2024, the Department updated this target to ensure that 80% of CQC registered providers and 80% of people who receive care will have a DSCR in place by March 2025. By extending timeframes, we can ensure that care providers who are yet to digitise have the time and support needed to successfully adopt DSCRs, and to reduce the risk of regional disparities in DSCR uptake. We’ve allocated a further £25 million this financial year, to ensure as many people as possible can benefit from a DSCR.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the removal of (a) overseas and (b) senior care workers’ rights to bring dependants on main applicant flows for the health and social care visa.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect social care visa volumes will remain resilient to removing the eligibility for new care and senior care workers to bring dependants. This is in the context of a strong global labour supply, possible changes in migrant behaviour in response, and that a proportion of recruits are estimated to already come without dependants. The Home Office has published estimates of the impact these changes might have on the number of people applying to work in the sector from outside the United Kingdom, which are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-migration-statement-estimated-immigration-impacts
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timetable is for the introduction of Liberty Protection Safeguards.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The situation remains as set out in April 2023. The implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) has been delayed beyond the life of this Parliament. We will therefore not be publishing a timetable for the introduction of the LPS at this time.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England’s vaccination strategy, published on 13 December 2023, what assessment her Department has made of Integrated Care Boards’ readiness to take on responsibility for commissioning vaccination services by April 2025.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England and its regional commissioning teams are working with integrated care boards (ICBs) to prepare for any future delegation of commissioning responsibility for vaccination services. This is likely to include a period of formal joint working between NHS England teams and ICBs to support collaborative decision-making. As with any delegation process, an assessment of ICB readiness will be required prior to any changes being made and the Department will be involved in this assessment. Following delegation, ICBs will need to provide assurance to NHS England that they are exercising the delegated functions safely and effectively, in line with the NHS Oversight Framework.
NHS England will remain accountable to the Secretary of State for the delivery and performance of national vaccination programmes as set out in the NHS public health functions.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference the NHS England's vaccination strategy, published on 13 December 2023, what steps she (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to help ensure that NHS England is able to monitor (i) vaccine uptake and (ii) vaccine performance across England after vaccination commissioning and performance monitoring is delegated to Integrated Care Boards.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Following any delegation, integrated care boards (ICBs) would still be expected to meet and report on national performance standards for uptake and coverage, and national data for uptake and coverage of vaccinations will continue to be published. The national vaccination strategy also suggests that this is enhanced by introducing additional requirements for understanding performance in communities that are currently underserved by vaccination services, and NHS England will be working with the UK Health Security Agency, ICBs and other partners to develop this further.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's vaccination strategy, published on 13 December 2023, what guidance Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and NHS regional bodies will receive to ensure that vaccine monitoring is (a) comparable with other ICBs and (b) collated at a national level to monitor England’s vaccine performance, after they become responsible for monitoring vaccine performance.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) on this issue is yet to be developed. NHS England will develop guidance on this issue at the time of any delegation and in consultation with the Department. ICBs would still be expected to meet and consistently report on national performance standards for uptake and coverage, and national data for uptake and coverage of vaccinations will continue to be published following any delegation.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's vaccination strategy, published on 13 December 2023, what guidance her Department plans to provide to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to ensure that vaccinators are trained to consider people with blood cancer who have received stem cell transplants when determining who has access to re-vaccination programmes, once ICBs become responsible for training vaccinators.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Eligibility for vaccination programmes is determined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) rather than the National Health Service or individual vaccinators. NHS England or JCVI may issue guidance on administering vaccines to certain groups and individuals including those who are immunocompromised. Training standards in vaccine administration will continue to be set by the UK Health Security Agency, and employers will be responsible for training their staff in accordance with these standards. In line with the vaccination strategy, NHS England will consider which national training and workforce management tools would support integrated care boards and employers to drive innovation in vaccination delivery including ways of supporting different eligible groups.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's publication entitled NHS vaccination strategy, published on 13 December 2023, whether she plans to issue guidance to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) on the best practice for administering vaccinations for individuals with weakened immune systems.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Eligibility for vaccination programmes is determined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) rather than the National Health Service or individual vaccinators. NHS England or JCVI may issue guidance on administering vaccines to certain groups and individuals including those who are immunocompromised. Training standards in vaccine administration will continue to be set by the UK Health Security Agency, and employers will be responsible for training their staff in accordance with these standards. In line with the vaccination strategy, NHS England will consider which national training and workforce management tools would support integrated care boards and employers to drive innovation in vaccination delivery including ways of supporting different eligible groups.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with NHS England on using its (a) structures and (b) delivery mechanisms to identify unpaid carers.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This summer, I met with NHS England and ministerial counterparts as part of the cross-government roundtable on unpaid carers. We discussed the identification of unpaid carers, including young carers, which continues to be an important area of work. NHS England set out how it plans to continue important work to identify, involve and support unpaid carers by, for example, enhancing the NHS App.
The Adult Social Care reform white paper, ‘People at the Heart of Care’, which was published December 2021, addressed identifying unpaid carers through increasing the use of markers in National Health Service electronic health records, by simplifying current approaches to data collection and registration.
On 17 October 2022, NHS England wrote to all general practitioner practices about the importance of identifying carers and advising how caring status should be recorded on patient records.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Justice on her Department's duty of candour review for health and social care providers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Ahead of publishing the Terms of Reference for the review on 6 December 2023, we consulted all members of the Home Affairs Committee, including my rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, on the Department’s planned approach to review the statutory duty of candour.