Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what role the NHS COVID-19 App is expected to play in the test and trace system.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Health Service COVID-19 app is new technology to assist with the well-established technique of contact tracing, including online and local public experts, supplemented by 25,000 dedicated contact tracing staff.
The test and trace system aims to reduce transmission of the virus by alerting people who may have been exposed to the virus so they can take action to protect themselves, the people they care about and the NHS.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) adults with a learning disability living in a care setting, (2) people over the age of 70 living in a care setting, and (3) people over the age of 70 not in a care setting, were issued a shielding letter in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Those identified as extremely clinically vulnerable are put on the Shielded Patient List (SPL), based on a set of specific conditions set out by the Chief Medical Officer. The SPL has been developed based on national data and local clinical judgement.
We only hold sufficient information on the SPL to allow us to identify those people who are clinically extremely vulnerable, to ensure that they have the right guidance and support to help them shield. We do not have additional data on whether that are currently in care settings or not. This means we are unable to identify adults with a learning disability in a care setting from the SPL, nor split the over 70s on the SPL between those in care settings and those not.
The SPL does include date of birth, so as of 7 May we know that 944,134 people aged 70 and over were on the SPL, and therefore should have received a shielding letter.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people over the age of 70 live in a care setting.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, formerly the Personal Social Services Research Unit, provide long term demand projections for adult social care, based on current service use and trends in disability rates. They estimate that in 2020 there are 330,000 care home residents aged 65 and over in care homes in England. These estimates are not broken down any further by age.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when specific personal protective equipment guidance for learning disability services will be published.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The United Kingdom Government and devolved administrations have published clear guidance on appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for health and social care workers as well as specific patient use of PPE. This has been written and reviewed by all four UK public health bodies and informed by National Health Service infection prevention control experts and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG).
Our guidance is consistent with World Health Organization guidance for protecting health and social care workers from COVID-19. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives have played a lead role in developing the guidance.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many adults with a learning disability live in a care setting.
Answered by Lord Bethell
2018-19 is the latest year for which data on the number of clients with a Primary Support Reason of Learning Disability Support receiving long term support by care setting is available. According to the 2018-19 dataset 2,065 adults with a learning disability lived in a nursing care setting whilst 30,410 adults with a learning disability lived in a residential care setting. Therefore, a total of 32,4765 adults with a learning disability lived in a care setting between 2018-19.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are putting in place to ensure that policies applied to people with learning disabilities recognise their individual needs.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are supporting people of all ages with a learning disability or autism to live well in the community, rather than in inappropriate hospital care. Building the Right Support is our national plan to develop community services and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient services for people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges, including those with a mental health condition.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to an extra £4.5 billion a year for primary care and community health services by 2023/24. Health and social care staff must have the skills and knowledge to make a positive difference to the lives of people with learning disabilities and autistic people. This is a priority for the Government and we are developing plans to introduce the Oliver McGowan mandatory training in learning disability and autism.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Care Quality Commission has published a specific inspection framework for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) Tier 4 inpatient services; what is the maximum time allowed between inspections of CAMHS inpatient services; and in what ways the views and experiences of child patients and their parents are elicited.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Tier 4 inspections are covered as part of the child and adolescent mental health wards core service. The definition for this core service is as follows:
Child and adolescent mental health services may assess and treat children and young people as an inpatient in hospital. This may be when community-based services cannot meet their needs safely and effectively because of their level of risk and/or complexity and where they need 24-hour nursing and medical care.
If providers are registering with the CQC as a new provider, the CQC will normally aim to inspect within 12 months of registration. For services that are rated, providers will receive their initial rating at this inspection. The CQC use this initial rating to determine when next to inspect the service.
For both National Health Service trusts and independent providers, the following principles apply regarding re-inspection (for NHS trusts since June 2017 and for independent providers since April 2018):
- Inadequate – Normally within 12 months of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report;
- Requires improvement - Normally within two years of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report;
- Good - Normally within three and a half years of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report; and
- Outstanding - Normally within five years of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report.
These are maximum inspection intervals, therefore the CQC may inspect more frequently, particularly if there is a risk.
The CQC encourages people to share their experience to ensure it is acted upon, including through the national Tell Us About Your Care partner charities.
The CQC aim to speak to children and young people and their families/carers during the inspection (depending on their availability) and have specific inspection tools to enable this.
This information is published as part of the inspection framework for NHS acute hospitals.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on what dates each of the registered Child and Adolescent Mental Health Tier 4 inpatient services were last inspected; and what is the schedule for future inspections for each service.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has provided the following response.
The dates each of the registered Child and Adolescent Mental Health Tier 4 inpatient services were last inspected are attached, due to the size of the data.
The CQC carry out either comprehensive or focused inspections. For National Health Service trusts, these inspections will usually be unannounced.
In a few instances, where there are very good reasons, the CQC may let a service know it is coming. For example, the CQC may contact a trust to make sure senior management are present to answer its questions.
To enable the CQC to observe normal practice in a service, it has introduced more unannounced inspections as part of its comprehensive inspection methodology.
Because the CQC requests information from providers beforehand, it will carry out the inspection within three months of the provider submitting its provider information request. However, the CQC will not announce the day on which it intends to inspect.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were diagnosed with cancer in the last year for which records are available, broken down by (1) cancer type, and (2) Clinical Commissioning Group area.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Data is not collected in the format requested. However, tables showing a full breakdown of male and female cancer diagnoses by type and number at clinical commissioning group level in 2017, the last year for which records are available, is attached due to the size of the data.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what contingency plans have been put in place to ensure the continued supply of general sales list medicines that are important for the management of specific health conditions after the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Leaving the European Union with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. However, as a responsible Government we must plan for every possible outcome including ‘no deal’. The Department has published guidance to industry and the health and care system to allow them to make informed plans and preparations. This is available online at GOV.UK.
The Government has been working closely with industry to ensure the supply of medicines can continue uninterrupted in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit, including building stockpiles, providing additional warehousing space and buying freight capacity on alternative ferry routes. Our plans cover all medicines and medical products, including general sales list medicines.
The Department will continue to work on its ‘no deal’ plans, and we are writing in similar terms to all other organisations in the health and care system to ask them to continue and not to wind down their contingency plans at this stage. The Department wrote to all suppliers of medicines to the United Kingdom on 26 March to advise them of the changes to EU exit dates, and ask them to continue with preparations to protect patients in all possible outcomes.