Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS staff were subject to Maintaining High Professional Standards procedures in each of the last five years.

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

The Department does not hold data centrally on how many National Health Service staff were investigated under the Maintaining High Professional Standards framework in each of the last five years. This data is also not held by NHS England.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that concerns raised by NHS whistleblowers on patient safety are (a) recorded, (b) escalated and (c) reviewed.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are a number of avenues through which healthcare workers can speak up and raise concerns, with established procedures in place to record, act on, and escalate issues as needed.

In England, more than 1,300 Freedom to Speak Up Guardians now support staff in speaking up. Their role involves working alongside governance, risk, and safety teams to ensure that speaking up translates into improvements in patient care, as well as identifying patterns and trends, for example, in patient safety incidents. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians collect and report anonymised data on the issues raised with them, including patient safety. This data is published by the National Guardian’s Office at the following link:

https://nationalguardian.org.uk/learning-resources/speaking-up-data/

The National Guardian’s Office and NHS England are ‘prescribed persons’, authorised to receive protected disclosures, including those in relation to safety and quality concerns. They are legally required to publish annual reports on protected disclosures and their outcomes.

Every National Health Service organisation in England should be following the national Freedom to Speak Up policy, which outlines minimum standards for handling and addressing concerns. This policy ensures that all reported concerns are considered carefully and investigated objectively when necessary.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of current national oversight arrangements for the implementation of the framework set out in the document Maintaining High Professional Standards procedures within NHS trusts.

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

Maintaining High Professional Standards was first published in 2005, and it remains an important framework for the initial handling of concerns about doctors and dentists in the National Health Service. All Department and NHS England guidance documents are kept under review.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of exempting foster carers from Council Tax in whole or in part.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Local authorities are responsible for the administration of council tax and have discretionary powers to apply exemptions or council tax discounts. This could include offering discounts to foster carers where they consider this appropriate.

The Government has recently consulted on modernising and improving the administration of council tax. This included seeking views on the current range of council tax disregards provided in the system. The Government will publish its response to the consultation in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of increasing the maximum age for post-foster care arrangements to age 25.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government is committed to supporting care leavers as they transition to independence.

Staying Put enables care leavers to prepare for independence more gradually in a stable and secure family setting. It enables young people to continue living with their former foster carer(s) when they turn age 18, potentially up to age 21, if both parties want this.

We are committed to Staying Put arrangements but must prioritise the introduction of the Staying Close duty in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which provides support to those who cannot benefit from Staying Put.

Staying Close offers tailored support for care leavers, including help to find and keep suitable accommodation and access to wraparound services such as health and wellbeing, education, training and employment. This measure ensures that eligible care leavers can receive support up to age 25, helping them to build stability and life skills and reducing the risk of homelessness and poor outcomes. This includes young people who might have previously been in a Staying Put arrangement.

Found: Dr Rose Marie Parr (Lay member) Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat; Frome and East Somerset) Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Found: Dr Rose Marie Parr (Lay member) Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat; Frome and East Somerset) Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Found: Francis Habgood; Professor Michael Maguire; Mehmuda Mian; Dr Rose Marie Parr; Anna Sabine; Dr Neil Shastri -Hurst

Found: Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst - Transcript Report

Found: 4th Report - Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst HC 1569 Report

Found: Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst - written evidence Report