Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that vegans and vegetarians are provided with appropriate food in the (a) NHS, (b) social care and (c) other health services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the National Health Service, social care and other health services, the Care Quality Commission regulates providers on compliance with Regulation 14 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This states that health and social care providers must consider people’s preferences, religious and cultural backgrounds when providing food and drink, and that people must have their nutritional needs assessed as quickly as possible and food be provided to meet the needs identified.
NHS England published updated NHS Food Standards in November 2022. The standards set out that menus should be tailored to meet patient’s dietary requirements and personal preferences. To that end, all hospital sites are expected to prepare and provide menus that meet all necessary types of dietary, religious and cultural needs. Vegetarian and vegan meals and snacks have long been part of this choice, and particularly with the focus on providing lower carbon choices, plant based meals are being provided as an extensive range.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of covid-19 infection rates among health and social care staff on the delivery of frontline health and social care services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Sickness absence rates, including COVID-19 absence, among National Health Service staff are currently collected and published by NHS England. Data is published monthly in their COVID-19 data release and also weekly, for a subset of providers within the Urgent and Emergency Care Situation Reports for 2023/24. The monthly and weekly data sets, respectively, are available at the following links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
Similarly for adult social care settings, data on staff absences due to COVID-19 related reasons are collected by the Department and published monthly, and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/monthly-statistics-for-adult-social-care-england
However, whilst rates are collected and monitored both centrally and locally, there has been no specific recent assessment of the impact of COVID-19 infection rates among health and social care staff on the delivery of frontline health and social care services.
Correspondence Nov. 13 2023
Committee: Health, Social Care and Sport CommitteeFound: National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Primary Medical Services Section 17C
Correspondence Dec. 06 2023
Committee: Health, Social Care and Sport CommitteeFound: National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Primary Medical Services Section 17C
May. 07 2008
Source Page: Table showing NHS hospital and community health services qualified psychiatric nurses in England broken down by Strategic Health Authority area and by organisation as at 30 September for the years 1999/00 to 2006/ 07. 12 p.Found: Table showing NHS hospital and community health services qualified psychiatric nurses in England broken
Feb. 07 2011
Source Page: Dear Colleague letter dated 13/01/2011 from David Behan, Director General, and David Flory, Deputy NHS Chief Executive, regarding NHS support for social care: 2010/11 - 2012/13. 5 p.Found: Dear Colleague letter dated 13/01/2011 from David Behan, Director General, and David Flory, Deputy NHS
Dec. 20 2010
Source Page: Table showing Primary Care Trust proposals to achieve the separation of commissioning from the provision of community services, as agreed by the Department of Health at 30/11/2010.Found: Primary Care Trust proposals to achieve the separation of commissioning from the provision of community services
Jul. 16 2008
Source Page: Table showing NHS hospital and community health services qualified mental health nurses broken down by area and organisation as at 30 September for the each year from 2003 to 2006-07. 7 p.Found: Table showing NHS hospital and community health services qualified mental health nurses broken down by
May. 12 2011
Source Page: Table showing East of England NHS Trusts Revenue Expenditure for the years 2005/06 to 2009/10. 5 p.Found: Table showing East of England NHS Trusts Revenue Expenditure for the years 2005/06 to 2009/10. 5 p.
Mar. 15 2011
Source Page: Table showing Department of Health consultations launched since 2002 onwards, and their duration.Found: services complaints procedure for adults37912.037996.012.0Promoting the status of social work : a consultation