Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 the level of bereavement support provided by local authorities in England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No specific assessment has been made.
We continue to work closely with bereavement services to ensure support is available and assess what is required by the sector.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of local authorities that have published autism strategies.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 effect of a market failure in the domiciliary care sector on local authorities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets according to local needs, which includes securing the right balance of domiciliary, residential and other provision. Throughout the pandemic, we have made available over £2 billion in specific funding for adult social care, in addition to over £6 billion for local authorities to address pressures on their services. In partnership with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we carried out a service continuity and care market review to understand the robustness of local authorities’ plans and the level of support needed to maintain continuity of provision through winter 2020-21.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has undertaken to assess which aspects of local restrictions imposed in 2020 to prevent the spread of covid-19 proved effective.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies considered the impact of tiers in England and interventions in the devolved administrations in November 2020. A summary of this analysis is available at the following link:
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions Ministers in his Department have had with (a) local authority leaders and (b) public health directors on the guidance issued by his Department stating that people should not to travel into and out of (i) Kirklees, (ii) Bedford, (iii) Burnley, (iv) Leicester, (v) Hounslow, (vi) North Tyneside, (vii) Bolton and (viii) Blackburn with Darwen.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has been in constant contact with local authority leaders and directors of public health to support local Covid-19 outbreak management in these areas.
The Department engages routinely with Local Authorities through our Regional Partnership teams, who have daily and weekly meetings with local authorities. The Director of Strategy & Engagement for Contain and their team meets with Local Authority Chief Executives, Directors of Public Health, the Local Government Association and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives fortnightly to discuss policy development.
On 25 May 2021, officials met the 8 Local Authorities concerned about the travel guidance. Since then we have engaged continuously with local health leads on the risks posed by new variants. We have deployed local communications to the affected areas to alert the public to advice. We worked at pace last week, recognising the risks posed by the increased case rates of the new variant in some parts of the country. As a result, we recognise that the communications were not as clear as they could have been. We will be discussing with local authority colleagues this week to make sure that everyone is clear what the expectations are and how we can improve communications going forward.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 tests shipped in the last 12 months have produced a recorded result.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Between 28 May 2020 to 28 April 2021 the total number of polymerase chain reaction tests which produced a recorded result was 8,726,870 test results.
The total number of lateral flow device tests which recorded a result between 22 October 2020 and 28 April 2021 in England was 63,852,593.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average daily cost is of a consultant employed to support NHS Test and Trace; how many consultants are employed to support NHS Test and Trace; and how many days in total of consultancy time were contracted by his Department to support NHS Test and Trace.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The actual average cost per day to the Department for a consultant is £1,100 per day and approximately 2,500 consultants are currently employed on NHS Test and Trace. Information on the number of days in total of consultancy time contracted to support NHS Test and Trace is not collected in the format requested.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) external consultants and (b) arms-length bodies his Department has employed to work on the NHS Test and Trace programme in each month since the inception of that programme; and what the cost of their employment is each month.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Figures on how many consultants are employed each month on the Test and Trace programme is not collected as the number is subject to continual week on week change. Audited information for the monthly costs of consultants is not currently available.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2021 Question 135951 on Public Health: Finance, if he will publish an update on the timescale for the announcement of individual local authority public health grant allocations for 2021-22.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public health allocations to local authorities in England were published on 16 March 2021 and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-health-grants-to-local-authorities-2021-to-2022
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's recent investigation into a complaint against Lincolnshire County Council, what assessment he has made of whether local authorities' fixed charges for short-term residential care are in line with statutory guidance.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In determining fixed charges for short-term residential care, a local authority must follow the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) 2014 Regulation (the Regulations) and have regard to the Care and Support Statutory (CASS) guidance.
It is the role of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, to look at individual complaints about local authority failure to follow policies, including those on whether fixed charges for short-term residential care are in line with statutory guidance.