The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2014-02-24.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library all correspondence between his Department and other departments on the matter of union subscription check off.
Mr Francis Maude
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions and correspondence are not usually disclosed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps (a) his Department and (b) NHS England are taking to ensure that autism diagnosis waiting times for (i) children and (ii) adults meet National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.
Alistair Burt
The Department has discussed with NHS England the difficulties that people on the autistic spectrum can have in getting an appropriate diagnosis in a timely manner. With support from the Department, NHS England and the Association of Directors of Social Services will undertake a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to gather information that can be shared between areas that have arrangements in place to meet National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard 51 Autism: support for commissioning, and those that do not, with the aim of supporting more consistent provision. These NICE guidelines already recommend that there should be a maximum of three months between a referral and a first appointment for a diagnostic assessment for autism. We expect the National Health Service to be working towards meeting the recommendations.
NHS England has also been working with the Health and Social Care Information Centre to develop the Mental Health Minimum Data Set. This will include provision for the diagnosis of autism to be recorded. This mandatory data set will, for the first time, provide data about diagnosis rates. The data will be published and available for everyone to use to support and develop services. NHS England has a commitment, over the next five years, to improve waiting times and this data will be invaluable for this. Information on average waiting times for autistic diagnosis in each clinical commissioning group area is not collected centrally.
The Department issued new statutory guidance in March this year for local authorities and NHS organisations to support the continued implementation of the 2010 Autism Strategy, as refreshed by its 2014 Think Autism update. This guidance sets out what people seeking an autism diagnosis can expect from local authorities and NHS bodies including general practitioners.
We are due to consult on how we set the mandate to NHS England prior to publication of the mandate itself. The mandate will be published following the Government’s Spending Review which is due to complete on 25 November.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-10-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to include access to a timely autism diagnosis in his Department’s next mandate to NHS England.
Alistair Burt
The Department has discussed with NHS England the difficulties that people on the autistic spectrum can have in getting an appropriate diagnosis in a timely manner. With support from the Department, NHS England and the Association of Directors of Social Services will undertake a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to gather information that can be shared between areas that have arrangements in place to meet National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard 51 Autism: support for commissioning, and those that do not, with the aim of supporting more consistent provision. These NICE guidelines already recommend that there should be a maximum of three months between a referral and a first appointment for a diagnostic assessment for autism. We expect the National Health Service to be working towards meeting the recommendations.
NHS England has also been working with the Health and Social Care Information Centre to develop the Mental Health Minimum Data Set. This will include provision for the diagnosis of autism to be recorded. This mandatory data set will, for the first time, provide data about diagnosis rates. The data will be published and available for everyone to use to support and develop services. NHS England has a commitment, over the next five years, to improve waiting times and this data will be invaluable for this. Information on average waiting times for autistic diagnosis in each clinical commissioning group area is not collected centrally.
The Department issued new statutory guidance in March this year for local authorities and NHS organisations to support the continued implementation of the 2010 Autism Strategy, as refreshed by its 2014 Think Autism update. This guidance sets out what people seeking an autism diagnosis can expect from local authorities and NHS bodies including general practitioners.
We are due to consult on how we set the mandate to NHS England prior to publication of the mandate itself. The mandate will be published following the Government’s Spending Review which is due to complete on 25 November.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average number of job searches required of jobseeker’s allowance claimants is in (a) each English region and (b) each age group.
Esther McVey
There is not set number of jobsearches required.
It is a condition of entitlement for Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants to be actively seeking work. To meet this requirement, claimants are generally expected to take all reasonable steps each week to give them the best prospects of obtaining work.
DWP Work Coaches agree steps that it is reasonable to expect the claimant to undertake, taking into account individual circumstances and record these in a Claimant Commitment which is regularly reviewed and updated as appropriate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff of his Department have been assigned to implementation of the recommendations of the independent review of the operation of jobseekers’ allowance sanctions, published in July 2014; what estimate he has made of the number of staff hours that have been spent on that implementation to date; and what funding his Department has allocated to that implementation.
Esther McVey
The information as requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of the recommendations accepted in the Government’s response to the Independent review of the operation of jobseeker’s allowance sanctions, published in July 2014, his Department plans to have implemented by May 2015.
Esther McVey
We have published our response to the Oakley Report and a copy can be found here:
We have accepted all recommendations made by the Oakley Report and we have already implemented a number of improvements. Our response sets out a number of target completion dates for recommendations made by the Oakley Report.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to recommendation 11 of the Government’s response to the Independent review of the operation of jobseeker’s allowance sanctions, published in July 2014, what potential warnings and non-financial sanctions options his Department has considered in response to that recommendation.
Esther McVey
We have published our response to the Oakley Report and a copy can be found here:
We have accepted all recommendations made by the Oakley Report and we have already implemented a number of improvements. Our response sets out a number of target completion dates for recommendations made by the Oakley Report.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government’s response to the Independent review of the operation of jobseeker’s allowance sanctions, published in July 2014, when he plans to publish the communications review referred to in that document.
Esther McVey
We have accepted all recommendations made by the Oakley Report and we have already implemented a number of improvements. Our response sets out a number of target completion dates for recommendations made by the Oakley Report.
In the Government Response to the Oakley Review we committed to report on the progress of the Communications Review by the end of 2014. The Department published an update on improvements to communications following the review, on 18 December 2014. This can be found here:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on the implementation of the recommendations which the Government (a) accepted, (b) accepted in principle and (c) accepted and were already underway in its response to the publication entitled, Independent review of the operation of jobseeker’s allowance sanctions, published in July 2014.
Esther McVey
We have published our response to the Oakley Report and a copy can be found here:
We have accepted all recommendations made by the Oakley Report and we have already implemented a number of improvements. Our response sets out a number of target completion dates for recommendations made by the Oakley Report.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-09-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reasonable adjustments will be made to support any disabled young person required to attend boot camp to prepare for employment under the Earn or Learn policy.
Priti Patel
From April 2017, we will be introducing the new Youth Obligation for Universal Credit (UC) claimants aged 18-21 who will be expected and supported to look for work. This new programme of support will help young people develop skills and experience to get and keep work.
The first three weeks of this will be a Work Coach led Intensive Activity Period (IAP), where young people on the Youth Obligation will complete a set curriculum of activity designed to help establish them as effective full time job-seekers straight away and support them into work as soon as possible.
Any requirements placed on claimants through the Youth Obligation will be reasonable and tailored to their individual needs and capabilities, taking into consideration any health condition they may have.
We will set out our policy design for disabled young people under the Youth Obligation in due course.