Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Adult social care system reform: next steps to put People at the Heart of Care, published on 4 April 2023, if she will take steps to make funding available to expedite the discharge of elderly patients from hospital.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is investing an additional £600 million this year, and £1 billion next year through the Discharge Fund. This funding will enable the National Health Service and local authorities in England to reduce discharge delays, including by commissioning additional packages of care and support for rehabilitation and reablement.
In September, alongside the £200 million to boost resilience in the NHS, we announced a £40 million fund, targeted at local authorities in the most challenged NHS systems in England. This fund will strengthen urgent and emergency care resilience and performance this winter by preventing avoidable admissions or by reducing discharge delays.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of funding allocated for social care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for York Central on 22 November 2023 to Question 2356.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will have discussions with local authorities on establishing community hubs with the aim of helping to tackle (a) poverty and (b) social isolation in (i) Romford and (ii) England.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government recognises how community hubs, run by local authorities, charities and voluntary and community organisations play an important role in helping to deliver local services on which communities rely.
Local councils play an essential role in the fabric of our country and are best placed to understand local funding priorities. The flexibility to make funding decisions at a local level is often why these services are so effective.
In recognition of this most of the funding made available through the Local Government Finance Settlement, worth £59.7 billion in 2023-24, is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding of (a) adult and (b) children's social care; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes in the level of funding on those sectors.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care carries out regular exercises to assess the financial pressures facing adult social care. These assessments account for a wide range of pressures, such as inflation, National Living Wage increases and demographic changes. The Department of Health and Social Care continuously works closely with local authorities and the adult social care sector to understand what the impact of cost and demand pressures will be on service delivery.
The Department of Health and Social Care’s assessment of financial pressures is shared with HM Treasury and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and used to inform decisions on the overall funding available to local government. Since the Spending Review the Government has made available up to £8.1 billion in additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge, including an additional £570 million announced in July 2023. This will put the adult social care system on a stronger financial footing and improve the quality of and access to care.
As the Department for Education is responsible for children’s social care, the Department of Health and Social Care has made no assessment of its funding adequacy.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the level of poverty among veterans.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This Government is committed to supporting all households, including veterans, with the cost of living.
Veterans who are particularly vulnerable to increased living costs are likely to be eligible for targeted cost of living support payments, including the £150 disability cost of living payment, in addition to accessing targeted welfare and cost of living support, including the Energy Price Guarantee.
For the first time, a veteran marker has been included in the national Census which will transform our understanding of employment, finance, housing and other related priorities among veterans and their families.
We are also taking action to further support veterans, their families and communities across the UK. This includes Op FORTITUDE, the dedicated referral scheme for veterans facing homelessness and rough sleeping, which is part of a broader £8.55 million of funding for specialist help and wrap-around support for veterans in more than 900 supported housing units; the £20 million Veterans Capital Housing Fund, supporting projects which contribute towards extra housing for veterans through new builds and refurbishment of existing social and charitable housing; the £700,000 Veterans Career Development Fund, supporting projects which enable access for veterans and their families to qualifications and training to secure, sustainable, valuable employment; and an Independent Review of HMG Welfare Services for Veterans.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 13 September 2023 to Question 198352 on Dental Services: Cornwall, how funding recovered from NHS dentists may be spent by his Department.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has provided guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) that requires dental funding to be ringfenced, with any unused resources re-directed to improve National Health Service dental access in the first instance. A schedule setting out the dental ringfence has been issued to ICBs. NHS England’s 2023/24 revenue finance and contracting guidance, which provides more detail, is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2023-24-revenue-finance-and-contracting-guidance/
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that Meals on Wheels services are adequately resourced to meet the (a) nutritional needs and (b) social well-being of (i) older and (ii) disabled people.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The provision of Meals on Wheels is an important public service and Councils are best placed to make decisions about their provision alongside other local services.
To enable this, final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. This includes around £2 billion in additional grant for social care through the Settlement for 2023/24.
Asked by: Jo Gideon (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide additional funding for social enterprises delivering NHS services.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government greatly appreciates the role of social enterprises in delivering National Health Service services. Social enterprises will have existing contracts with Integrated Care Boards in their local area or with NHS England. These contracts are based on local contracting arrangements and therefore the Government does not anticipate uplifting contracts in-year beyond the existing guidance that NHS England has produced for the ‘2023/24 pay award: revenue finance and contracting guidance’. This guidance is available at the following link:
The Department has been considering its position regarding the 2022/23 non-consolidated funding, which has required significant and detailed legal consideration and will reach a conclusion in due course.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to allocate remaining funding from the People at the Heart of Care funding for adult social care reform.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on the (a) Childcare Allowance (b) Parent Learning Allowance and (c) Dependent's Allowance of the NHS Bursary; and how many people have (i) made a claim and (ii) been eligible for support under that scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
Prior to 2017, the NHS Bursary was available to nursing, midwifery and allied health professions students as well as medical and dental students. Nursing, midwifery and allied health professions students starting courses after 2017 were transitioned on to the Student Finance loans system and the NHS Learning Support Fund.
The following table shows for the years 2018/19 to 2022/23 the number of students who received an element of NHS Bursary, together with the number of students who received available childcare components and their corresponding expenditure.
Financial Year | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23* |
Number of Students who Received an Element of Funding | 67,748 | 43,470 | 20,147 | 17,289 | 18,076 |
Number of Students in Receipt of Dependants Allowance | 9,178 | 5,050 | 1,096 | 357 | 247 |
Dependants Allowance Expenditure (£) | 19,053,850 | 8,344,526 | 1,599,887 | 539,752 | 363,775 |
Number of Students in Receipt of Parent Learning Allowance | 9,141 | 5,033 | 1,077 | 332 | 179 |
Parent Learning Allowance Expenditure (£) | 7,846,287 | 3,417,731 | 653,253 | 211,489 | 103,489 |
Number of Students in Receipt of Childcare Allowance | 5,031 | 2,557 | 576 | 144 | 83 |
Childcare Allowance Expenditure (£) | 16,659,222 | 7,028,750 | 1,313,955 | 399,834 | 238,972 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
Note: The NHS Business Services Authority moved to a new system in 2022/23. The student count is from two different IT systems with no unique identifier, with potential for duplication in the count. Financial values are unaffected.