Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with learning disabilities have access to day care services.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan the care and support needs of their local population. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to shape the local care market to ensure a diverse range of high quality and sustainable care and support services are provided, including day services for those with learning disabilities.
We continue to support to local authorities to ensure the appropriate tools and resources are available to effectively manage the local market. The Department funds support and improvement work in the sector, including the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to deliver the Care and Health Improvement Programme.
In addition, we have written to local authorities to reiterate the importance of day services and respite for carers and to encourage authorities to access the funding available.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to create more (a) respite and (b) care services for unpaid carers to allow them take regular breaks from their caring duties.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The white paper ‘People at the Heart of Care’ states that we will invest up to £25 million to improve the services provided to unpaid carers, which could include respite, breaks, peer group and wellbeing support.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to provide services which meet the needs of the local population, including carers. Funding for respite and short breaks for carers is included in the Better Care Fund. The BCF Framework for 2022/23 will be published shortly and will request that local BCF partnerships set out how funding is being used to support unpaid carers. In addition, we have written to local authorities to reiterate the importance of day services and respite for carers and to encourage authorities to access the funding available.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate provision of social care services for children and young people with disabilities and their families.
Answered by Will Quince
In the past three months we have published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, and the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published its final report.
The SEND and AP Green Paper aims to ensure the right support is delivered in the right setting at the right time for children and young people with SEND. Our proposals include the introduction of national standards for how needs are assessed, identified and met across education, health and care in order to drive greater national consistency
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has also now published its final report, making a number of recommendations on the support that disabled children and their families should receive. To respond to this Review we will publish a detailed and ambitious implementation strategy later this year. We are committed to aligning this with the SEND and AP reforms so that we build a coherent system with the best interest of all vulnerable children at its heart.
Local authorities have access to £54.1 billion core spending power in the 2022/23 financial year to deliver their services, including for children and young people, this is £3.7 billion more than in the 2021/22 financial year.
As part of this, the government has boosted the social care grant, increasing it by £636 million, and so bringing it to a total of around £2.35 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. Local authorities will have access to a one-off Services Grant in the 2022/23 financial year, which is worth over £800 million and can be used for all services, including children’s social care.
The department is also making better respite care available for those who care for children with special educational needs and disabilities, with councils invited to bid for an extra £30 million for the next three years to set up more than 10,000 additional short break and respite placements for vulnerable children.
We will publish proposals to improve support for young people with disabilities and their families.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has guidance in place for families whose disabled relatives require a negative lateral flow test to access respite services but are unable to obtain the necessary testing sample due to the nature of their disability.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Department has published guidance on testing in adult social care settings, including respite services. Individuals accessing respite care through a care home should test before admission, to reduce the risk of bringing infection into the home and given the high-risk nature of these settings and vulnerabilities of residents. Based on public health advice, testing is not required if accessing care through other adult social care services, such as day care centres and domiciliary care.
For individuals who may be unable to test due to a disability, a risk assessment should be undertaken and a decision may determine whether it is in their best interests to be tested. In all instances, guidance on infection prevention and control measures should be followed in all adult social care services where individuals may access respite care to prevent transmission of COVID-19.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
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 merits of introducing a UK recovery and respite plan for unpaid carers; and what wider steps his Department is taking to support unpaid carers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
There are no plans to publish a specific recovery and respite plan for unpaid carers in England. In ‘People at the Heart of Care’, we set out how we will invest up to £25 million with the sector to identify and test a range of new and existing interventions to support unpaid carers, which could include respite and breaks, peer group and wellbeing support.
In addition, funding provided through the Better Care Fund can be used for carer breaks and respite. The BCF Framework for 2022/23 will be published shortly and will request that all local BCF partnerships set out how funding is being used to support unpaid carers. On 13 May, we wrote to local authorities to reiterate the importance of respite support for carers and to understand any challenges in returning these services to full capacity.
Unpaid carers in low-income households will benefit from the Means-Tested Benefit Cost of Living Payment. Those living in the same household as the disabled person for whom they care will benefit from the disability Cost of Living Payment, while families with a pensioner in the household will benefit from the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
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 June 2022 to Question 1680 on Care Homes: Coronavirus, if she will publish figures on respite care home capacity from March 2020 to the present.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a Recovery and Respite Plan for Unpaid Carers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
There are no plans to publish a specific recovery and respite plan for unpaid carers in England. ‘People at the Heart of Care’ published on 1 December 2021, aims to empower unpaid carers to live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives. This includes an investment of up to £25 million to improve the services provided to support unpaid carers. In addition, funding provided through the Better Care Fund (BCF) can be allocated to carers’ breaks and respite. The BCF Framework for 2022/23 will be published shortly and will request that all local BCF partnerships state how funding is being used to support unpaid carers.
On 13 May 2022, we wrote to local authorities to reiterate the importance of respite support for carers and to understand any challenges which may prevent these services returning to full capacity. Unpaid carers in low-income households will also benefit from the Means-Tested Benefit Cost of Living Payment. Those living in the same household as the disabled person for whom they care will benefit from the disability Cost of Living Payment, while families with a pensioner in the household will benefit from the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of respite support for carers in (i) England and (ii) Northern Ireland and (b) publish the findings from that assessment.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have no plans to make an assessment. However, we will invest up to £25 million to improve the support provided to unpaid carers in England. We expect this funding will identify and test a range of new and existing interventions, which could include respite and breaks, peer group and wellbeing support. We will also work with the sector, including local authorities, to explore different models of respite, how respite services are accessed by carers and any barriers which carers may experience in accessing these services.
Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) support unpaid carers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The white paper ‘People at the Heart of Care’ sets out how we will invest up to £25 million to improve services provided to support unpaid carers. We expect this funding will identify and test a range of new and existing interventions for unpaid carers, which could include respite and breaks and peer group and wellbeing.
To support the identification of unpaid carers, we are encouraging the use of unpaid carer markers in National Health Service electronic health records by simplifying data collection and registration. We will also introduce a new marker indicating the presence of a contingency plan, where one is available, which describes the actions to take if the carer is no longer able to provide care.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of (a) respite care homes, (b) care homes and (c) nursing homes limiting their patient capacity due to covid-19 restrictions in the latest period for which information is available.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information requested is not held centrally. Updated guidance for the sector was published on 31 March 2022 to ensure there are sufficient protections for care recipients while safely removing restrictions as far as possible.