Tag: Baroness Uddin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-11-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to ensure that all academy schools, their leaders, boards of directors, advisers and heads of department, adhere to all aspects of equality legislation in the UK.

Lord Nash

Academy trusts, and the academies they run, are required to adhere to all aspects of equality legislation. The Department’s model funding agreement for academy trusts, available on GOV.UK, states that the academy trust must ensure the academy promotes principles that support equality of opportunity for all. The Education Funding Agency is responsible, on behalf of the Secretary of State, for holding academy trusts to account for meeting the terms of their funding agreements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-11-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current availability of qualified speech therapists at the point of assessment throughout the NHS and community healthcare provision.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Health and Social Care Information Centre annual census data shows that as at 30 September 2014, there were 6,207 full time equivalent speech and language therapists working in the National Health Service in England, this is a rise of 2% since May 2010.

Health Education England (HEE) and the Department of Health commissioned the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) to undertake a stock take of the speech and language therapists workforce in England. The CfWI published Securing the future workforce supply – Speech and language therapy stocktake, in December 2014. A copy of this is attached. The stocktake investigated the current balance of demand and supply for speech and language therapists and explored how this is expected to change by 2025, including those working in the public and private sector.

HEE has increased the number of speech and language therapist training places in 2015-16 to 668, an increase of 3.7% over 2014-15. HEE will take the content of the CfWI speech and language therapy stocktake into account in their workforce planning and future commissioning decisions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the lessons that can be learnt from the case of Connor Sparrowhawk in order to improve services for those with autism and learning difficulties.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This is a deeply distressing case, and I hope its lessons will be noted by all provider and commissioning authorities. This Government is fully committed to ensuring the best quality care for everyone, and all providers are expected to prioritise the safety and dignity of all patients.

Where a care provider delivers unacceptable standards of care, it must be held to account. The Government has introduced new fundamental standards as requirements for registration of care homes with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC has a range of enforcement powers it can use where a provider does not meet these fundamental standards. Where a failure to meet these standards causes harm or a serious risk of harm to service users, the CQC will be able to prosecute both the provider organisation as well as its Directors.

Where a provider is convicted, it will face a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine. A Director of a care home can also be prosecuted if he or she has consented or connived in the provision of seriously poor care that has caused harm. In addition, the CQC has the power to remove board-level Directors who are not fit and proper to carry out the roles to which they are appointed.

This is a major step forward to ensure that those who are responsible for organisations in which abuse and poor standards of care are allowed to occur are held to account.

More generally, the Care Act 2014 heralds a changed approach to adult safeguarding, as embodied by the work that the Department has done with Local Authorities and stakeholders on the programme Making Safeguarding Personal.

NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services will shortly publish their National Transformation Plan aimed at reducing reliance on inpatient care, strengthening community provision and driving transformative change for people with learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges, including those with a mental health condition. In its role as system steward, the Department will be holding system partners to account for delivery and ensuring that the plan is robust, fit for purpose and is equally clear about when families and individuals can expect to see results.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assistance will be given under the proposed Conflict, Stability and Security Fund.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The thematic breakdown of Conflict, Stability and Security Fund spending was provided in a Written Ministerial Statement of 12 March 2015 by the Minister for Government Policy at the Cabinet Office, which was repeated in the House of Lords on the same day by the noble Lord Wallace of Saltaire (HLW379). For reasons of national security, we cannot provide specific details of allocations for partner countries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund will be allocated for survivors of sexual violence in conflict zones.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Seven million pounds has so far been allocated to Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative activity in 2015-16. We are currently finalising subsequent allocations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of joint working between the Metropolitan Police Service and Transport for London in order to prevent abusive verbal attacks on public transport in London.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Government Ministers have regular meetings with the Mayor and Transport for London to discuss a variety of topics, with transport decision making in London being the primary responsibility of the Mayor, including making provision for ensuring the safety of passengers and staff.

The Government has also recently assured that all police forces will be specifically recording anti-Muslim hatred as a specific hate crime and this will be adopted into all thinking.

Our new Counter Extremism Strategy is also focused on dealing with all forms of hate crime and bigotry.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to Transport for London about ensuring that its staff are trained to deal with racial abuse, harassment and Islamophobia.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Government Ministers have regular meetings with the Mayor and Transport for London to discuss a variety of topics, with transport decision making in London being the primary responsibility of the Mayor, including making provision for ensuring the safety of passengers and staff.

The Government has also recently assured that all police forces will be specifically recording anti-Muslim hatred as a specific hate crime and this will be adopted into all thinking.

Our new Counter Extremism Strategy is also focused on dealing with all forms of hate crime and bigotry.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-09-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans are in place to reduce the current average wait for children before a diagnosis of autism.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on autism make it clear that families should wait no more than three months to start diagnosis. Every part of the National Health Service should be adhering to these guidelines.

There are new arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs, introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014. These require clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and local authorities to make joint arrangements for ensuring a coordinated assessment of the range of eligible children’s needs, and the development of an Education, Health and Care plan to provide necessary support.

NHS England’s Children with Complex Needs Implementation Board is leading working on ensuring robust and accountability mechanisms are in place to ensure delivery and to allow NHS England to hold CCGs to account for performance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-09-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place to support families waiting for a diagnosis of autism for a child.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on autism make it clear that families should wait no more than three months to start diagnosis. Every part of the National Health Service should be adhering to these guidelines.

There are new arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs, introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014. These require clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and local authorities to make joint arrangements for ensuring a coordinated assessment of the range of eligible children’s needs, and the development of an Education, Health and Care plan to provide necessary support.

NHS England’s Children with Complex Needs Implementation Board is leading working on ensuring robust and accountability mechanisms are in place to ensure delivery and to allow NHS England to hold CCGs to account for performance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-09-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve awareness of cerebral palsy amongst (1) medical generalists, and (2) those working in schools.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government has taken a number of steps to support people with cerebral palsy.

Health Education England is mandated to develop training for general practitioners to develop a special interest in the care of young people with long-term conditions. We have also funded the development of Paediatric Care online, a resource for supporting the clinical workforce across the full range of children’s health issues.

The Government funded the development of Disability Matters (launched in February 2015). This is an e-learning tool to improve the skills of anyone working to support the needs of people with a disability or complex need (of all ages), and can be used by teachers and health professionals.

The Government has introduced a new statutory framework for children and young people with special educational needs and disability, which requires clinical commissioning groups and local authorities to make joint arrangements to ensure a co-ordinated assessment of needs. The new approach will greatly improve integrated working across specialist health, education (either in mainstream or special schools), and social care, to deliver improved outcomes for the child.

There are no current plans to introduce a national register of children with cerebral palsy.