Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the No Recourse to Public Funds policy on trends in the level of child poverty.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.

The government is working to develop a strategy to drive forward short and long-term actions to reduce child poverty.

The strategy will consider levers to alleviate poverty experienced by all children in the UK, regardless of immigration status, including children either subject to or impacted by the No Recourse to Public Funds policy.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to support self-employed midwives.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Independent midwives make a valuable contribution to midwifery services across the country. As they are not employed by the National Health Service, we do not have any influence over their pay or terms and conditions, or how they access learning, development, and pastoral support. Many self-employed midwives are members of Independent Midwifery UK, which does offer support and mentoring.

Local employers who work with self-employed midwives are best placed to determine what additional support they can offer, in the interests of delivering high quality services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to facilitate access to professional indemnity insurance for self-employed midwives.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

In England, most National Health Services are covered by the state indemnity schemes administered by NHS Resolution. Therefore, midwives working in NHS trusts, other member organisations, and general practices are covered by the state indemnity schemes, namely the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) and the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice, respectively. Where self-employed midwives are not covered by state schemes, they need to obtain independent cover which is mainly through regulated insurance or via discretionary indemnity offered primarily by medical defence organisations.

In 2020, the difficulty in accessing indemnity was highlighted by self-employed midwives. Alternative arrangements were agreed via an NHS contract which enabled self-employed midwives to be covered by the state scheme, the CNST. A number use this model, although we understand some do not.

The Department is currently considering policy measures to address gaps in the clinical indemnities system. We would be happy to take further evidence from self-employed midwives to determine issues specific to them and the scale of the problem.

Found: _38 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Sarah Smith .

Found: _38 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Sarah Smith .

Found: _38 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Sarah Smith .

Found: _38 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Sarah Smith .

Found: _38 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Sarah Smith .

Found: _72 Dr Ben Spencer Laurence Turner Neil Coyle Helen Hayes .

Found: Not selected_35 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Marsha De Cordova Dame Meg Hillier Sarah

Found: _39 Sarah Olney Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Sarah Smith .

Found: Negatived on division_11 Sarah Bool Rachael Maskell Neil Coyle Marsha De Cordova Rebecca Paul Dame