Tag: Justin Madders

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of hospital shifts breaching the national price caps for NHS agency staff occurred on patient safety grounds in the last year for which figures are available.

Alistair Burt

Last year the Government introduced a series of tough financial controls to help the National Health Service tackle overspending on agency staff, including an hourly price cap. These controls include a provision for any trusts that need to override the price caps on exceptional patient safety grounds. Trusts report any such overrides on a weekly basis to NHS Improvement.

The latest information released by NHS Improvement on the number of trusts reporting using shifts in excess of the price caps from 23 November 2015 to 7 March 2016 is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-agency-shifts-exceeding-the-price-caps-by-trust

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare graduates who are expected to pay off their student loan in full.

Joseph Johnson

The Government announced in the 2015 Spending Review that from 1 August 2017, all new nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students will receive their funding and financial support through the standard student support system, rather than through the current NHS Bursary Scheme. The changes will enable us to lift the cap on the number of students on nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare courses and provide full time students on these courses with access to around 25% additional financial support for living costs. We expect this reform to enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional nursing, midwifery and allied health training places over this Parliament.

The proportion of students that will fully repay their loans is estimated for the total full time student population, rather than separately for students on different courses. On this basis, we estimate that between 45% and 50% of student loan borrowers are expected to pay off their student loan in full.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether meeting notes, correspondence and plans produced by the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprint leadership teams are included within the remit of clinical commissioning groups in their capacity as public authorities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if he will place in the Library a list of contacts for each footprint area.

George Freeman

Every health and care system in England is producing a multi-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), showing how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years – ultimately delivering the Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved NHS efficiency. Freedom of Information (FoI) requests would be responded to in line with the FoI Act. It is the intention is to publish STPs once they are final and agreed. Organisations within footprints such as clinical commissioning groups will adhere to their own local governance and engagement arrangements.

The list of Footprint leads is attached and also contained on the NHS England website:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/03/leaders-confirmed/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-06-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the potential number of redundancies which will result from the decision to abolish the nursing, midwifery and allied health professions policy unit.

Ben Gummer

As part of the DH 2020 plan, the Department is making significant changes to the way it works. The Department’s approach is to flexibly access professional advice from a wide range of sources, including arm’s length bodies, regulators and professional bodies, rather than from a fixed standing team of internal advisers.

These changes do not affect the role of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), who as CNO of the Department already advises, and will continue to advise all Ministers and the Department on the range of nursing issues.

All staff in the Department, including staff in the current nursing, midwifery and allied health professions policy unit are eligible to apply for new roles in the organisation or to apply for a voluntary early severance scheme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, from which sources does the Government receive credit card fees from people paying for services offered by its departments and agencies; and what the total amount received was in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16.

Ben Gummer

The Cabinet Office does not collect data on behalf of Government on the receipt of credit card fees from people paying for services offered by its departments and agencies. If available, individual departments and agencies will hold this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the recommendation of the Independent Cancer Taskforce report, Achieving World-Class cancer outcomes: a strategy for England 2015-2020, published in July 2015, what progress has been made on developing the future shape and skill mix of the cancer workforce; and when he plans to publish a review into the cancer workforce.

David Mowat

Supported by Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, Health Education England (HEE) has been leading on the independent Cancer Taskforce recommendation that it should work with NHS England, charities and others to develop a vision for the future shape and skills mix of the workforce required to deliver a modern, holistic patient-centred cancer service.

HEE has completed an initial cancer workforce baseline review that has been shared and discussed with key stakeholders, including the National Cancer Advisory Group, which has wide representation from cancer charities, medical Royal Colleges and others. The review is regularly updated with emerging intelligence from Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas on the workforce they require to deliver the cancer service challenge.

In addition, HEE is leading on a major piece of work to address the workforce challenges in transforming cancer services, which includes a skills mix review. It has agreed an approach with key stakeholders for the review and will be working through Local Workforce Action Boards, Vanguards and Cancer Alliances, to understand the skills mix needed for emerging cancer service models. HEE will report back on this work in March 2017.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many pregnant women have been offered personal birth budgets since February 2016.

Mr Philip Dunne

Personal budgets for maternity services is one of the recommendations in Better Births, the report of the independent review of maternity services. Implementation of the review is being taken forward through the Maternity Transformation Board.

NHS England is working with seven Maternity Choice and Personalisation Pioneers, encompassing 36 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in total, to develop and test ways of improving choice in maternity services. The pioneer sites, each made up of clusters of CCGs, are working to widen choice across CCG boundaries and deepen choice by providing opportunities for new providers.

The first stage of this is the development of Personal Maternity Care Budgets (PMCBs) as mechanisms to empower women to take control in choosing who provides their care. Unlike Personal Health Budgets, PMCBs do not offer the option of direct payments to women. They are intended instead to provide a visible, transparent and active mechanism for women to choose where they wish to receive their antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care and will facilitate the flow of money between providers, depending on these choices.

NHS England is working with pioneers on the design of PMCBs and the pioneers are also developing local implementation plans, including support tools for women, general practitioners, midwives and other relevant healthcare professions, to help women make meaningful choices, with the aim of rolling them out progressively in the seven Pioneer areas from November 2016. Their impact will be evaluated to inform the promotion and adoption of PMCBs across the country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his oral contribution of 21 October 2014, Official Report, column 754, whether he has received a copy of the OECD study of the four NHS systems in the UK.

Ben Gummer

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has yet to publish its United Kingdom Health Care Quality Review. The four UK countries have had sight of a draft of the final report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential cost to the NHS of the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in April 2017.

Ben Gummer

The apprenticeship levy will come into effect in April 2017. It will be payable by employers in the United Kingdom at 0.5% of pay bill. All employers will receive an allowance of £15,000 to offset against payment of the levy which means the levy will only be payable on pay bill in excess of £3 million per year. The NHS contribution to the levy will be dependent on individual NHS organisation’s pay bill at that time. The NHS is fully committed to the apprenticeship agenda and will use the levy contributions to grow the number of apprentices in the NHS.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the distributional analysis of the introduction of the two per cent social care precept.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government announced on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 2238-2241, that local authorities with social care responsibilities will be able to increase their council tax by up to 2% above the core referendum principle of 2%. This could raise up to £2 billion by 2019/20. We set out a breakdown by local authority as part of the announcement which can be viewed at the following link or in the attached document:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

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