Mentions:
1: None It has a huge impact on preventable deaths, the economy, productivity and of course families and loved - Speech Link
2: None That creates damage for families, affects the productivity of the economy, impacts the NHS in a costly - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Trudy Harrison (Con - Copeland) It is about the lost productivity and people having to retire early and dying early. - Speech Link
Correspondence Apr. 30 2024
Committee: Windsor Framework Sub-CommitteeFound: current available vaccines can take ov er and spread rapidly meaning significant mortality and DRAFT productivity
Correspondence Apr. 30 2024
Committee: Human Rights (Joint Committee)Found: the tota l costs of smoking in England are over £17 billion, including £14 billion per year cost to productivity
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of infant respiratory syncytial virus on (1) paediatric intensive care bed capacity, (2) NHS elective care capacity, (3) GP visits, and (4) economic productivity.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has not made specific assessments of the impact of infant respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) on paediatric intensive care bed capacity, National Health Service elective care capacity, and general practice visits, as RSV is often accompanied by other respiratory viruses and bacterial infections, and it is therefore difficult to measure the exact contribution of RSV. Neither has the Department assessed the wider productivity and economic benefits of RSV specifically.
The NHS plans for a wide range of scenarios ahead of each winter, and will continue to adapt plans based on respiratory infections surveillance, including RSV, and NHS activity data. This includes specialised commissioning led winter surge planning for paediatric critical care, as well as wider winter planning. For RSV specifically, this includes the annual immunisation programme, which continues to be managed and reviewed in accordance with advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). For 2024 to 2025, preparedness may include rolling out a new RSV vaccination programme following the JCVI’s recommendations issued in September 2023, subject to approval from the Department.
The health impact of infant RSV was assessed in a scientific paper published in Lancet Regional Health Europe in January 2024, and has been assessed previously in scientific papers published by Public Health England and others. This work contributed to the JCVI’s assessment of RSV’s impact, and advice to implement an immunisation programme to prevent infant RSV.
Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to encourage businesses to invest in skills training.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to delivering a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality, and fit for the future. The department’s reforms are backed with an investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen higher and further education to help more people get good jobs, upskill and retrain throughout their lives and to improve national productivity.
Over 5,000 employers have been involved in the development of nearly 700 high-quality apprenticeships to meet their industry skills needs. To support employers of all sizes offer apprenticeships, the government has increased investment in apprenticeships to over £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes investing a further £60 million to meet overall increased employer demand for apprenticeships and encourage small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to take on young apprentices.
From April, the department pays 100% of training costs when SMEs take on new apprentices aged 16-21. Additionally, larger employers can now transfer more of their levy funds (50% increased from 25%) to support businesses of all sizes, which will help more employers to invest in apprenticeship training.
Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the chance to build sector-specific skills with an offer of a job interview on completion. Training providers work with employers to ensure training is designed to teach the skills employers need. To date, over 1000 employers have been involved in Skills Bootcamps. Employers play a range of roles from supporting the design and delivery of the training, to recruiting learners that complete training into a job, or an apprenticeship. Employers can also use Skills Bootcamps to upskill their existing employees, subject to a 10% contribution for SMEs and 30% contribution for large employers.
Institutes of Technology bring education and business closer together, creating unique collaborations between colleges, universities and industry which deliver higher-level technical education with a clear route to high skilled employment. The department has provided £300 million of capital funding for infrastructure and industry standard equipment to increase capacity to deliver level 4/5 technical skills. In addition, employer partners were encouraged to provide additional support (monetary and in kind) which for the wave 2 competition was set at 35% of value of capital expenditure.
In October 2023, the department launched a new website called Skills for Careers that provides a single digital front door to information about skills training options and careers. A link to Skills for Careers can be found here: https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/skills-for-life. From Skills for Careers, users are guided through government’s skills offer from apprenticeships to Skills Bootcamps, A levels to Multiply. The website provides an overview of each option along with information about writing job applications and CVs.
Across all areas of England, employer-led Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) have helped engage thousands of local businesses and have brought them together with local providers and stakeholders to collaboratively agree and deliver actions to address local skills needs. By giving employers a more strategic role in the skills system, LSIPs are helping to drive greater employer investment in skills and ensure businesses are more actively involved in the planning, design and delivery of skills provision.
Departmental officials are also working with the Office for Investment and Department for Business and Trade to provide support for investors to navigate the skills system at a national and local level and encourage take-up of government funded skills programmes and employer investment in skills, as well as build strategic partnerships with local education and training providers. Whilst it is not a core part of their role, some of the designated employer representative bodies leading the LSIPs have engaged with inward investors as part of developing and implementing their LSIPs.
Oral Evidence Apr. 29 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: It is all of our savings from nearly 2,500 managers’ jobs lost but also the productivity savings from
Written Evidence Apr. 29 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: Productivity and pay reporting The Plan for Rail had as a deliverable that: “comprehensive data
Written Evidence Apr. 29 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: installation cost, and so driving competition in the installer market will help raise historically stagnant productivity
Written Evidence Apr. 29 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: societal costs are included, such as ongoing treatment beyond the first year, and loss of economic productivity