Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) capacity and (b) level of staffing in the hospice sector; how hospices are supporting the families of terminally-ill patients due to social distancing guidance; and what steps he is taking to ensure that hospices continue to benefit from community fundraising activities during the outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department holds regular discussions with representatives of the hospice sector about how they are coping during the COVID-19 outbreak, including capacity and staffing issues. On 8 April 2020 the Chancellor announced up to £200 million in funding for hospices, as part of a wider package of £750million for the wider voluntary and charity sector to support hospices in increasing the capacity of NHS services. To deliver this NHS England and NHS Improvement use a national tracker, which reports capacity and staffing levels for the hospice sector, to monitor the effect of COVID-19 on the healthcare system.
Hospices provide high quality support to the families of terminally-ill patients and will continue to do so in alignment with the safety aspects that inform the guidance on social distancing. For example, many are offering online and telephone support to families during this time.
The Department recognises that social distancing rules are impacting community fundraising, including events and the activities of charity shops. To help hospices continue to be financially viable during the pandemic, they are eligible for a range of measures which apply to charities such as having the option to defer their VAT bills to the end of June, paying no business rates for their shops next year and applying for a Business Interruption Loan. Many charity shops are already eligible for 80% charitable rate relief and will benefit from the new enhanced retail rate relief at 100%.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to protect the provision of end-o- life care by community-based palliative care teams during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important to ensure patients requiring high-quality palliative and end of life care, whether in hospices or in the community, continue to receive that support during the COVID-19 outbreak.
To support local commissioners during this challenging time, NHS England and NHS improvement has developed a standard operating procedure for community palliative and end of life care. This is due to be published shortly and will contain guidance for healthcare professionals working in community settings, taking into account the safety of clinicians.
In addition, a range of guidance has already been made available to support the delivery of high-quality end of life care in community settings, including:
- The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) ‘Rapid Guideline: managing symptoms (including at the end of life) in the community’;
- The NHS England and NHS Improvement clinical specialty guide ‘Community Palliative, End of Life and Bereavement Care in the COVID-19 pandemic’; and
- The NHS England and NHS Improvement clinical guidelines for children and young people with palliative care needs in all care settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The guidance is available at the following links:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG163
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's news story entitled, Chancellor sets out extra £750 million coronavirus funding for frontline charities, published on 8 April 2020, what Barnett consequentials will accrue to the Scottish Government in relation to financial support for hospices in Scotland.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The UK government is applying the Barnett formula in the normal way to the additional funding for charities announced by the Chancellor, with the Scottish Government receiving at least £55 million in Barnett consequentials in relation to the £750 million package.
Funding for charities is a devolved matter and it is for the Scottish Government to decide how to support charities in Scotland.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support hospices during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly assesses the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on the hospice sector, and through NHS England and NHS Improvement, are engaged in regular discussions with key stakeholders in the hospice sector regarding the challenges they face. A range of steps have been taken to support them.
On 8 April 2020, the Chancellor announced funding of up to £200 million for hospices over the next three months as part of the £750 funding package for the voluntary and charitable sector. This funding will support them to increase capacity of NHS services and provide stability as we manage our response to COVID-19.
In addition, to ensure that hospices continue to benefit from fundraising activities while social distancing measures remain in place, they are eligible for a range of measures which apply to charities such as having the option to defer their VAT bills to the end of June, paying no business rates for their shops next year and applying for a Business Interruption Loan. Many charity shops are already eligible for 80% charitable rate relief and will benefit from the new enhanced retail rate relief at 100%.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish guidance on how children's hospices should provide care and support during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Working with key stakeholders, NHS England and NHS improvement have developed a standard operating procedure (SOP), for palliative care for children and young people in community and hospice settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is due to published shortly.
The SOP is aimed at supporting staff who are providing care or supporting children and young people, and their families, who have palliative and/or end of life care needs in the community, including home and hospice care. Palliative care will include some children and young people who have life-limiting long-term conditions and complex health needs. It encourages all providers of children’s palliative care (statutory and voluntary sector) to work collaboratively and flexibly across health settings to support this group of children and young people and keep them safe during the pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths attributed to COVID-19 have been recorded in (1) care homes, (2) hospitals, (3) individuals' homes, and (4) other locations.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Pearson,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths attributed to COVID-19 have been recorded in (1) care homes, (2) hospitals, (3) individuals' homes, and (4) other locations (HL3277).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces a weekly report on provisional deaths registered in England and Wales[1], including deaths involving COVID-19. The week runs from Saturday to Friday, and data has therefore been provided for all deaths attributed to COVID-19 up to the most recent week available, ending 17 April. ONS mortality statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration.
Table 1 below shows the number of deaths that occurred where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate up to and including 17 April 2020. We have included these figures as they are presented in our weekly report.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Provisional figures on total death registrations where coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate in England and Wales up to 17 April 2020 by place of occurrence[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
| Total deaths (COVID-19) |
Care Home | 3,096 |
Hospital (acute or community, not psychiatric) | 14,796 |
Home | 883 |
Other | 337 |
Total | 19,112 |
Source: ONS
[2]Coding of deaths by cause for the latest week is not yet complete and counts could be subject of change.
[3]For deaths registered from 1st January 2020, cause of death is coded to the ICD-10 classification using MUSE 5.5 software. Previous years were coded to IRIS 4.2.3, further information about the change in software is available.
[4]These figures represent death registrations, there can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. More information can be found in our impact of registration delays release.
[5]An 'underlying cause of death' refers to the main cause of death, whereas a cause being 'mentioned on the death certificate' means that it might be the main reason or a contributory reason to the cause of death
[6]Deaths at home are those at the usual residence of the deceased (according to the informant)‚ where this is not a communal establishment.
[7]Care homes includes homes for the chronic sick; nursing homes; homes for people with mental health problems and non-NHS multi-function sites.
[8]Other includes:
Hospices: including Sue Ryder Homes; Marie Curie Centres; oncology centres; voluntary hospice units; and palliative care centres.
Other Communal Establishments: including schools for people with learning disabilities; holiday homes and hotels; common lodging houses; aged persons’ accommodation; assessment centres; schools; convents and monasteries; nurses’ homes;
Elsewhere: including all places not covered above such as deaths on a motorway; at the beach; climbing a mountain; walking down the street; at the cinema; at a football match; while out shopping; or in someone else's home.
This category also includes people who are pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
[9]These figures are calculated using the most up-to-date data we have available to get the most accurate estimates.
[10]Non-residents are included in the England and Wales total but not England and Wales separately. For this reason, counts for "England" and "Wales" may not sum to "England and Wales".
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 charities operating in the medical sector are equipped with adequate personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is taking steps to ensure that all staff operating in the medical sector can access adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and as such has delivered millions of items of personal protective equipment for staff at care homes, home care providers and hospices as well as to hospitals, ambulance trusts, general practitioner practices and pharmacists.
The needs of staff in frontline health services are covered in the United Kingdom-wide PPE Plan published on 10 April 2020. This provides clear guidance on who needs PPE and in what circumstances they need to use it, and how sufficient supplies will be secured to manage the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan can be accessed on the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-plan
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
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 extent of the need for personal protective equipment for people who work in the charity sector who are also working in frontline health services.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is taking steps to ensure that all staff operating in the medical sector can access adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and as such has delivered millions of items of personal protective equipment for staff at care homes, home care providers and hospices as well as to hospitals, ambulance trusts, general practitioner practices and pharmacists.
The needs of staff in frontline health services are covered in the United Kingdom-wide PPE Plan published on 10 April 2020. This provides clear guidance on who needs PPE and in what circumstances they need to use it, and how sufficient supplies will be secured to manage the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan can be accessed on the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-plan
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his news story, Chancellor sets out extra £750 million coronavirus funding for frontline charities, published on 8 April 2020, how many additional consequentials will be passed to each of the devolved administrations using the Barnett formula as a result of additional funding announced for hospices.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The UK government is applying the Barnett formula in the normal way to the additional funding for charities announced by the Chancellor.
The devolved administrations are receiving £60 million as a result of funding provided to the National Lottery Communities Fund from the charities pot. This means £30m for the Scottish Government, £18m for the Welsh Government and £10m for the Northern Ireland Executive, as confirmed on the day of the announcement.
Further Barnett allocations will be provided in relation to the £360m direct grant pot. The UK government has agreed to provide Hospices UK with up to £200m from this pot to support hospices in England. The devolved administrations will therefore receive up to £38m in Barnett consequentials on this element of the pot. This means up to £19m for the Scottish Government, £12m for the Welsh Government and £7m for the Northern Ireland Executive. Further consequentials are dependent on the final proposals funded from this pot so will be communicated shortly.
The UK government has so far announced almost £7 billion in Covid-19 Barnett consequentials to the devolved administrations to support people, business and public services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the economic effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the hospice sector; and what financial support he is providing to (a) hospices and (b) health charities to ensure that they can provide services during that outbreak.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Charities across the sector continue to play a crucial role in the national fight against Covid-19, supporting those who are most in need. This month we announced a £750 million pot intended to support charities providing key services and supporting vulnerable people during the Covid-19 crisis.
This included providing up to £200 million of funding this quarter to hospices, to support the NHS COVID-19 response. Further health charities will be eligible for support from the £750 million pot and last month we also provided an additional £5m to leading mental health charities.
Charities continue to have access to cross-cutting support already announced, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which enables them to furlough staff.