Tag: Cat Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to increase the number of bedded inpatient services for young people with mental health conditions.

Alistair Burt

The £1.4 billion additional funding the Government has made available over the course of this Parliament to deliver the vision set out in Future in Mind includes £7 million to enable NHS England to commission 56 new inpatient care beds for children and young people with mental health needs. This raises the total number of beds to 1,442, the highest this has ever been.

The local Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) transformation plans developed during 2015/16 provide the ideal context within which to make decisions about the future requirements for CAMHS T4 beds. The specialised commissioners have reviewed the approach to be taken to the CAMHS T4 procurement and have moved away from a single national procurement to local procurement, clearly set within a national framework. This revised approach will enable variation around timescales and ensure responsiveness to the local agenda. The approach will also reinforce the essential local ownership of capacity plans and pathways of care.

We also need to be clear that effective mental health care is about far more than inpatient beds. We are therefore working with local commissioners to strengthen care across the system. The aim is to bolster preventive and early-intervention services that help young people stay well in their own communities, without ever needing inpatient care.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the tender document for the Work and Health Programme to provide specialist support for long-term unemployed and claimants with health conditions and disabilities will be published; and when that programme will be operational.

Priti Patel

The 2015 Spending Review confirmed that the Department will launch the Work and Health Programme, restructuring our current provision to focus on providing the best possible support for claimants with health conditions or disabilities, as well as those who are long-term unemployed. The programme will launch in 2017.

The Department have commenced the commercial process for the programme by issuing a Prior Information Notice which was published on 28 April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what criteria the Government uses in deciding which women’s organisations to fund; how much funding the Government gave to women’s organisations in each of the last three years; and which such organisations received funding from government in each of those years.

Caroline Dinenage

The Government remains committed to gender equality. When appropriate we fund women’s organisations to carry out activities that further this aim. The criteria we use to determine which organisations to fund vary according to the policy aims that we are seeking to achieve.

Some of the most significant funding streams for UK women’s organisations in the last three years have come from HM Treasury, the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. HM Treasury has used £15 million collected from VAT on sanitary products to fund women’s charities – the grantees were announced in March 2016. The Department for Communities and Local Government also made available £250,000 to community and voluntary sector organisations as part of its Women’s Empowerment Fund in 2015-16 and continues to provide funding for refuges. Furthermore, the Home Office is providing funding to organisations and refuges supporting female victims of domestic and other forms of violence, as announced in the refreshed cross-Government strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls on 8 March 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to NHS trusts of nursing staff turnover as a result of proposals to cap union facility time in the Trade Union Bill.

Ben Gummer

There are no current proposals to cap tradeunion facility time although the Trade UnionBill includes a reservepower to do so if it is deemed appropriate.The Department has not estimated the cost to National Health Service trusts of nursing staff turnover should the power to do so be implemented and has no evidence that it would be affected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of former care leavers living in unsuitable accommodation.

Edward Timpson

Ensuring that young people leaving care are able to access suitable accommodation is a priority for this Government. In 2015, 92% of care leavers aged 19-21 were in suitable accommodation. We have introduced measures to help ensure care leavers have access to suitable accommodation but we are determined to do more.

That is why, during the last Parliament, we introduced the ‘Staying Put’ duty, which requires local authorities to support young people to continue living with their former foster carers up to age 21.

Statutory guidance sets out the factors that local authorities must take into account when determining the suitability of accommodation for their children and young people. The guidance was strengthened in 2015 to make clear that bed and breakfast accommodation should only be used in exceptional circumstances and for no longer than 2 working days. Since 2014, Ofsted inspections have assessed whether local authorities are ensuring that care leavers have access to suitable accommodation.

Further measures to support care leavers to access suitable accommodation will be considered as part of the refreshed cross-Government care leaver strategy, to be launched later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the cost was to the public purse of indemnification of franchise partners to meet the costs for staff from Crown Post Offices who transferred into their employment in 2014 and 2015.

George Freeman

Post Office Limited runs and manages its directly managed Crown post offices. Arrangements for employees of these offices and changes to the Crown network are the operational responsibility of the Post Office.

I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to you on this matter. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the funding formula is that was used for the 2016-17 allocation of Rural Services Delivery Grant.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Rural Services Delivery Grant is distributed to the top quartile of authorities ranked by their super-sparsity, as calculated using data from the 2011 Census. The amount that each authority receives is dependent on their super-sparsity above the threshold value of 0.089302, their total resident population (calculated using information from the 2011 Census) and the types of services that the council delivers. Further information on the methodology can be found in Part K of the 2014-15 Local Government Finance Report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the specification for the Work and Health Programme to provide specialist support for long-term unemployed and claimants with health conditions and disabilities will require (a) autism and (b) other conditions of claimants to be recorded by both providers and Jobcentre Plus; and what discussions he has had about which conditions will be recorded.

Priti Patel

Development of the Work and Health Programme design is well underway, including engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. The Department has commenced the commercial process for the programme by releasing the Prior Information Notice for potential providers on 28 April.

Decisions on what the information reporting requirements will be for people with a disability or health condition are yet to be made.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what role the Government is playing in UN discussions on improving mechanisms for casualty recording.

James Duddridge

The UK welcomes efforts to improve the UN’s recording of casualties as a means of ensuring UN decision making is better informed and civilians are better protected in conflict. We will continue to support the UN Secretary-General, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and all other relevant parts of the UN system as they take this work forward. We are a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a strong supporter of the Human Rights Up Front Initiative.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people are employed on zero-hours contracts in their main employment in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.