Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending eligibility to people aged 65 and over for the covid-19 Spring booster jab.
Answered by Maggie Throup
On 21 February 2022, the Government accepted advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to offer an additional spring booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine to those most vulnerable as a precautionary measure. The additional COVID-19 booster dose is being offered to all residents in care homes for older adults, individuals aged 12 years old and over who are immunosuppressed and all adults aged 75 years old and over.
On 19 May 2022, the JCVI published interim advice on an autumn COVID-19 booster programme. The JCVI’s interim advice is that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to residents in a care home for older adults and staff; frontline health and social care workers; all those 65 years old and over; and adults aged 16 to 64 years old in a clinical risk group. The JCVI will continue to review the vaccination programme and the epidemiological situation, particularly in relation to the timing and value of doses for less vulnerable older adults and those in clinical risk groups before autumn 2022. The Government will consider JCVI’s final recommendations for the autumn COVID-19 booster programme later this year.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will expand the spring covid-19 booster vaccine rollout to include people with motor neurone disease who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
Answered by Maggie Throup
During the spring booster vaccination programme, an additional dose is being offered to residents in care homes for older adults, individuals aged 12 years old and over who are immunosuppressed and adults aged 75 years old and over. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) do not currently recommend a further dose for those with motor neurone disease, unless the existing criteria applies.
The JCVI continues to consider the latest available data, particularly in relation to the timing and value of any further doses. On 19 May 2022, the JCVI published interim advice on an autumn COVID-19 booster programme. The JCVI advises that a booster dose should be offered to residents in care homes for older adults and staff; frontline health and social care workers; all those aged 65 years old and over; and adults aged 16 to 64 years old who are in a clinical risk group, such as motor neurone disease.
The JCVI will continue to review the vaccination programme, the definitions of clinical risk groups and the epidemiological situation to inform its final advice. The Government will consider the JCVI's final advice before determining which groups should be included in the autumn COVID-19 booster programme.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) whether capital funding is an effective way to incentivise the supply of housing for older people, and (2) how capital funding interacts with other factors such as planning legislation in this context.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Boosting the supply of a range of specialist housing across the country is key to our aim of ensuring older people can access the right homes to suit their needs. We work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to provide capital funding to incentivise supply.
Since 2010, we have delivered over 574,100 new affordable homes, including specialist housing for older people, through our investment in affordable housing.
We know that communities would welcome more homes, so long as they are the right sort of homes, are well designed and have the right supporting infrastructure. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill centres these interests, and will change the plan-making system, creating incentives to have a plan in place, with this plan having more weight in planning decisions. This will give certainty to communities and applicants about what can be built and where, supporting more permissions for development communities want.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that (1) older people, and (2) people with disabilities, can live in suitable housing.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
This Government is committed to ensuring older and disabled people can access homes that best suits their needs.
We work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to provide capital funding to incentivise supply. This includes investing £11.5 billion in the new Affordable Homes Programme, which includes delivery of new specialist or supported housing for older, disabled and other vulnerable people. We have also committed £573 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant each year from 2022-23 to 2024-25 to support eligible older and disabled people to adapt their homes to suit their needs.
As announced in the Levelling Up White Paper, we will shortly launch a new government taskforce to look at ways we can provide better choice, quality and security of housing for older people.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will expand access to the spring booster vaccination programme to people with motor neurone disease.
Answered by Maggie Throup
During the spring booster vaccination programme, an additional dose is being offered to residents in care homes for older adults, individuals aged 12 years old and over who are immunosuppressed and adults aged 75 years old and over. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) do not currently recommend a further dose for those with motor neurone disease, unless the existing criteria applies.
The JCVI continues to consider the latest available data, particularly in relation to the timing and value of any further doses. On 19 May 2022, the JCVI published interim advice on an autumn COVID-19 booster programme. The JCVI advises that a booster dose should be offered to residents in care homes for older adults and staff; frontline health and social care workers; all those aged 65 years old and over; and adults aged 16 to 64 years old who are in a clinical risk group, such as motor neurone disease.
The JCVI will continue to review the vaccination programme, the definitions of clinical risk groups and the epidemiological situation to inform its final advice. The Government will consider the JCVI's final advice before determining which groups should be included in the autumn COVID-19 booster programme.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to make a fourth covid-19 vaccination available to people aged between 60 and 75.
Answered by Maggie Throup
On 19 May 2022, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published interim advice on an autumn COVID-19 booster programme. The JCVI advised that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to residents and staff in care homes for older adults; frontline health and social care workers; all those aged 65 years old and over; and adults aged 16 to 64 years old in clinical risk groups. The JCVI will continue to review the vaccination programme and the epidemiological situation, particularly in relation to the timing and value of doses for less vulnerable older adults and those in clinical risk groups before autumn 2022. The Government will consider the JCVI’s final recommendations later this year.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen the transition points for children between (a) various stages of the child’s life including home and social care, (b) different forms of social care provision and (c) social care and independent living to ensure stability and safety for all affected children.
Answered by Will Quince
The department is clear that children are best looked after within their families, which is why we are investing £695 million over three years in our Supporting Families programme. The programme assigns keyworkers to families to help identify unmet need in the family. They co-ordinate access to services and look out for vulnerable children and young people, to avoid increased risk of abuse of exploitation and preventing them from needing to enter the care system.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring placements are suitable and take account of children’s longer-term needs. The department is clear that it is unacceptable for any child or young person to be placed in a setting that does not meet their needs. Sometimes, children in their care transition between different placements to ensure their needs are best met, and local authorities must support children and young people as they move between placements.
As a child gets older and begins the transition to adulthood, the department is committed to ensuring they receive the support and skills they need to succeed and achieve their maximum potential in life. Supported accommodation allows young people to live semi-independently and can be the right choice for some older children who are ready for this transition. To improve the quality of this type of provision, we are investing £142 million across the next three years to introduce mandatory national standards, Ofsted registration, and inspection for providers of supported accommodation.
The department is providing £172 million funding over the next three years to support care leavers, with better move-on accommodation and practical and emotional support from a personal advisor. The funding includes £99.8 million for local authorities over the next three years to help care leavers stay with their foster families after they turn 18 in a Staying Put arrangement, so they can continue to benefit from a stable and secure family setting as they transition to independence. Additionally, £36 million will extend the Staying Close programme so that more care leavers leaving children’s homes will be supported with move-on accommodation and support from a trusted adult. Finally, £36.4 million will be provided for Personal Advisors to support care leavers up to age 25. This will help them navigate services such as housing, health, or benefits and in providing practical or emotional support to help them prepare for living independently.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
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 extending the offer of a fourth covid-19 booster jab to people diagnosed with long covid.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a COVID-19 spring booster dose is being offered in England to all residents in care homes for older adults, individuals aged 12 years old and over who are immunosuppressed, and all adults aged 75 years old and over. Those experiencing the long term effects of COVID-19 infection are not specifically offered a spring booster dose, unless they meet the criteria for these cohorts.
On 19 May 2022, the (JCVI) published interim advice on an autumn COVID-19 booster programme. The JCVI’s current advice suggests that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to residents in a care home for older adults and staff; frontline health and social care workers; all those 65 years old and over; and adults aged 16 to 64 years old in a clinical risk group. The JCVI will continue to review the vaccination programme and the epidemiological situation, particularly in relation to the timing and value of doses for less vulnerable older adults and those in clinical risk groups before autumn 2022. The Government will consider the JCVI’s final recommendations later this year.
NHS England has invested £224 million to provide care and support to individuals with post-COVID-19 syndrome. There are specialised services across England which assess people experiencing longer-term health implications from COVID-19 and directs them into care pathways which provide appropriate support, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many domestic abuse charities specialising in support for older people receive funding from the Government.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Tackling domestic abuse is a key commitment for this Government. That is why we introduced our landmark Domestic Abuse Act to further protections to victims as well as strengthen measures to tackle perpetrators. Last month, we published our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which sets out four key areas to improve the response to domestic abuse; Prioritising Prevention, Supporting Victims, Pursuing Perpetrators and creating a Stronger System.
We understand the importance of specialist and ‘by and for’ services in providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. That is why in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the Government committed £1.5 million of funding to specialist services. This funding’s core objective is to ensure there is no funding gap in specialist ‘by and for’ service provisions, including, but not limited to, elderly victims.
The Home Office has also funded Hourglass, a specialist elder abuse charity, for a number of years. In 2020/21, we provided Hourglass with £50,000 of funding to support activity. An additional £106,000 was provided to further bolster their services as part of the response to the Covid-19 crisis, to ensure victims could continue to access support. In 2021-22, the Home Office provided Hourglass over £200,000 to support their work in enhancing their helpline, providing casework support, and training specialist IDVAs, with over 3000 victims being supported in 2021-22 alone. The most recent grant award was £33,000 for an eight-month period of funding for 2022.
Alongside this, our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan commits over £230 million of new funding, including £140 million on supporting victims of domestic abuse and up to £7.5 million for improving doctors, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals’ ability to spot, support and refer victims to appropriate services.
The Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care are also jointly leading the Safe Care at Home Review. The review is looking at the protections and the support available to adults at risk of or experiencing abuse in their own homes from people providing their care. As part of the review, we are coordinating inputs from organisations representing those with lived experience, including the elderly, carers and other interested parties. The Review is expected to complete before the end of 2022 and the Terms of Reference for the review have been published on Gov.uk.
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 (a) the take-up of the covid-19 second booster for the over 75s is and (b) plans he has to increase the level of take up.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The data is not available in format requested. However, as 17 April 2022 over 33% of people aged 75 years old and over in England have received a booster dose since 21 March 2022, which includes second booster doses. Those eligible will be contacted by the National Health Service and offered an appointment approximately six months after their last dose.
The Department, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency continue to provide advice and information to the public to increase uptake. As of 22 April 2022, approximately 2.6 million invitations had been sent to those in England eligible for a spring dose, including those aged 75 years old and older. In addition, information materials have been translated into 28 languages. NHS England is working with a range of groups to promote vaccination, including clinically-led question and answer sessions with those known to be more hesitant. Targeted approaches include working with leading Muslim doctors and the British Islamic Medical Association to encourage eligible individuals from the Muslim community to receive the spring dose during Ramadan. Local NHS teams are also offering vaccinations in care homes and through targeted mobile vaccination sites.