Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will announce a timetable for the re-introduction of close contact care home visits in England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
New visiting arrangements will start on 8 March. From then, every care home resident will be able to nominate one named person who can have regular, indoor visits. Those with highest care needs can also nominate an ‘essential family carer’.
We will continue to look carefully at the latest data and set out plans for the next phase of visits for people in residential care.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reported increase in the prescription of anti-psychotic medication in the care of people with dementia.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to monitor the monthly data published by NHS Digital on the prescribing of antipsychotic medication for people diagnosed with dementia. NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to have regular conversations with regional clinical network leads and local services to understand the patterns in prescribing and potential reasons for any trends.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have also disseminated good practices and resources to support the management of COVID-19 for people with dementia through the NHS Futures Collaboration Platform, fortnightly forums and webinars with Dementia Clinical Networks across England.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the indemnity on visits that has been granted to designated care homes which care for patients recovering from COVID-19 to all care settings; and whether this indemnity will be made permanent.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Designated Settings Indemnity Support (DSIS) was introduced specifically to enable those care homes assured, or intending to be assured, by the Care Quality Commission as Designated Settings and which are unable to obtain sufficient insurance, to overcome this barrier to accepting infectious COVID-19 positive patients from the National Health Service. It is a targeted, temporary measure to boost capacity in these settings and support wider NHS discharges in response to current pandemic pressures. The support will run until the end of March 2021, with a review point in mid-February. The DSIS is not, therefore, a permanent or sector-wide intervention.
We recognise that the wider adult social care insurance market is changing in response to the pandemic and that some care providers may encounter difficulties as their policies come up for renewal. We are working closely across Government, with care providers and insurance representatives to understand the breadth and severity of these wider issues, including those related to visiting and whether there is any further action the Government should take.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the concerns expressed by the Alzheimer’s Society on 1 February about the impact of delaying the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination on care home residents.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines provide a high degree of protection after the first dose. The decision to update the dosing interval is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and is designed to save lives. It was made following a thorough review of the data and was in line with the recommendations of the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers. The JCVI advised that we should prioritise giving as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing two doses in as short a time as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to family carers of care home residents.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Work has taken place to ensure we have the logistical expertise, transport, and workforce to rollout a vaccine, at the speed at which it can be manufactured. In line with the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the vaccine will be initially rolled out to priority groups, including care home residents and staff, people over 80 years old, and health and care workers. The vaccine will then be prioritised amongst the rest of the population in order of age and risk, including those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and all individuals aged 16-64 years old with underlying health conditions.
The JCVI appreciates that operational considerations, such as minimising wastage, may require deviation from the prioritisation order as outlined in the statement, where decisions are taken in consultation with national or local public health advice. We will follow the advice of the JCVI on clinical prioritisation, which supports vaccinating those most at risk of death from COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Methodist Homes' care home visitor policy.
Answered by Lord Bethell
On 1 December, we published updated online only guidance to enable more meaningful indoor visits to take place for care home residents across all tiers. This is enabled by providing testing to visitors, which will be available before Christmas. It is a matter for care providers to make decisions about their visiting policy, based on the national guidance.
The guidance enables care home providers, families and local professionals to work together to find the right balance between the benefits of visiting on wellbeing and quality of life, and the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to vulnerable residents and social care staff.
When developing this policy, we have engaged with a range of stakeholders from across the sector including the Methodist Home Association.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in ensuring that care homes are granted insurance indemnity under the same terms as provided for the NHS under the Coronavirus Act 2020.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We recognise that the adult social care insurance market is changing in response to the pandemic. We are working closely across Government, with care providers and insurance representatives to understand the breadth and severity of the issues, and whether there is any action the Government should take to support the sector.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial support they intend to provide to care homes to enable such homes to offer twice weekly tests to two visitors for each care home resident.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department is providing a tailored training and guidance package for care homes in order to support them to establish effective testing regimes. We have made £4.6 billion available to local authorities so they can address pressures on local services caused by the pandemic, including in adult social care.
In addition, the Infection Control Fund, set up in May, has been extended until March 2021, with an extra £546 million for the care sector to take key steps to improve infection prevention and control. As per the grant conditions, this funding may be used for supporting safe visiting in care homes.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they estimate that family members and friends of care home residents will be provided with twice weekly testing to enable them to visit; and whether they still plan to implement that policy before 25 December.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We want to bring an end to the pain of separation and help care homes bring families and loved ones together. The launch of visitor testing is a crucial step to making that happen.
Testing is only one way of minimising the risk of visiting a care home. If a visitor has a negative test, is wearing appropriate personal protective equipment and following other infection control measures, then it will be possible for family and friends to visit care homes.
Following a successful trial in 20 care homes, we have started the phased rollout of new rapid tests to all care homes across England to support visiting. The first 385 care homes are now able to begin testing visitors and we aim to roll this out to all care homes by Christmas.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will include a target to reduce childhood obesity inequality in the Green Paper on Prevention.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
In the second chapter of the childhood obesity plan, published in June 2018, we have set a bold ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce the gap in obesity between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030. Through chapter three of the childhood obesity plan, published on 22 July as part of ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, we are looking at a range of further options to tackle obesity.
‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’ is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/advancing-our-health-prevention-in-the-2020s