Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
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 people with a learning disability are given priority for receiving a covid-19 vaccine in the next phase of the vaccination programme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
On 24 February the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation published a clarification of their advice on vaccinating people with a learning disability. They confirmed their view that priority should be given to those with a severe and profound learning disability, but recognised the issues around coding of learning disability on general practitioner (GP) systems and supported a practical approach of inviting everyone who is on the GP Learning Disability Register for vaccination in cohort six.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
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 potential merits of including café au lait marks in children's Red Book health records to improve the early diagnosis of neurofibromatosis Type 1.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The content of the red book is determined by The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The Department continues to work with the Royal College and the National Health Service to ensure the red book is up to date and accessible.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to allocate additional funding to East Sussex County Council for the NHS test and trace system; and what guidance he has published on developing local plans for the allocation of that funding.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
As of 5 November 2020, England is now under national restrictions. Local authorities in England were allocated up to £8 per head of population inclusive of any amounts previously provided through the Contain Outbreak Management Fund. Payments will be made to upper tier local authorities for onward disbursement. East Sussex County Council will receive funding of £4,457,832.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
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 adequate staffing levels in the social care sector after the transition period.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the Government’s ambition to recruit more people into social care to meet the future needs of society. In the short term, in order to attract people into social care now, we launched a new national recruitment campaign, ‘Care for others; Make a difference’, which ran across broadcast, digital and social media. We have also launched a new online platform to fast-track recruitment into the adult social care sector, which sits alongside the many local initiatives that have been put in place to recruit staff.
The new Health and Care visa will make it cheaper, quicker and easier for eligible social care professionals such as social workers, occupational therapists and nurses from around the world come to work the United Kingdom. In addition, all social care workers will now be permanently exempt from paying the Immigration Health Surcharge.