Tag: Lord Harrison

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whose responsibility it is to ensure the safety of lifts at Euston railway station; and what information they have about when those lifts were last inspected; and whether they will publish a report about lift safety at that station.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Network Rail is the relevant safety duty holder with responsibility for ensuring that risks are controlled so far as reasonably practicable on its infrastructure and the stations it manages.

The Department does not hold information about when the lifts at Euston railway station were last inspected and operational issues such as these are a matter for Network Rail with oversight from the Office of Rail and Road in its role as the independent railway safety regulator.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many diabetes specialist nurses are currently employed by (1) each Clinical Commissioning Group area, and (2) each hospital trust, in England.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the National Health Service in England but it does not separately identify diabetes specialist nurses.

It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 26 November (HL3958), what plans they have to ensure that podiatric services are available to diabetics who need them; and what criteria they are recommending that Clinical Commissioning Groups use to differentiate between those diabetics who will continue to require podiatric services and those who will not.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Podiatry services are commissioned locally by clinical commissioning groups working with local partners and based on the need of the local population, resources available and evidence based practice. Treatment decisions should always be made by doctors based on a patient’s individual clinical needs.

Preventing diabetes and promoting the best possible care for people with diabetes is a key priority for this Government and is part of the 2016/17 Mandate to NHS England. Building on the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, the Department of Health and NHS England are exploring options for ensuring a sustained focus on improving the management and care of people with diabetes.

The new National Diabetes Foot Care Audit, a module of the National Diabetes Audit, aims to establish the extent to which national guidelines on the management of diabetic foot disease are being met. The audit will provide local teams with the evidence needed to tackle any identified differences in practice which will lead to an overall improvement in management and outcomes for patients. Local and national level results will be available in March 2016. However, we do know that there has been an increase in the proportion of Trusts with multidisciplinary diabetic foot care teams, from around 60% in 2011 to over 70% in 2013.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much money the NHS invested in ensuring access to and provision of structured education for diabetes patients in (1) 2013, (2) 2014 and (3) 2015, and what percentage those figures represent of total NHS spend on diabetes during each year.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.

During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.

Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.

Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.

For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.

NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:

– the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and

– newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.

Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.

The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an impact assessment was carried out regarding removing bursaries for students of podiatry; and if so, with what result.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department will run a consultation on how the funding reforms for nursing, midwifery and allied health education can be most successfully implemented. We currently expect to consult during March 2016. As part of this, an economic impact assessment and equality impact assessment will be published.

Health Education England (HEE) will continue to have a key leading role in the commissioning of nursing, midwifery and allied health courses. It will continue to provide sufficient clinical placement funding for those places needed to meet the workforce planning needs of the National Health Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current primary performance management mechanism through which NHS England hold Clinical Commissioning Groups to account for achieving progress in diabetes service improvement and quality of care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.

During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.

Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.

Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.

For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.

NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:

– the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and

– newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.

Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.

The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what options they are considering to ensure that the student numbers for podiatry are maintained after August 2017.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department will run a consultation on how the funding reforms for nursing, midwifery and allied health education can be most successfully implemented. We currently expect to consult during March 2016. As part of this, an economic impact assessment and equality impact assessment will be published.

Health Education England (HEE) will continue to have a key leading role in the commissioning of nursing, midwifery and allied health courses. It will continue to provide sufficient clinical placement funding for those places needed to meet the workforce planning needs of the National Health Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultation or correspondence they had with companies offering employee share ownership schemes before announcing the withdrawal of HM Revenue and Custom’s valuation check service.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has been consulting representative bodies through the Valuation Fiscal Forum over the last 18 months.

HMRC has not withdrawn valuation services that are most relevant to employee share ownership schemes.

These include:

• Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI),

• Company Share Option Plans (CSOP),

• Save As You Earn share option schemes (SAYE),

• Share Incentive Plans (SIP) and

• Employee Shareholder Status (ESS).

  HMRC has, however, announced a review of the valuation services for those schemes and is consulting interested parties.

  HMRC has withdrawn valuation checks for income tax and PAYE that are not part of these recognised employee ownership schemes. Most people submitted acceptable valuations and therefore the valuation service offered was not seen as needed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-02-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the finding of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year An Unholy Mess that a significant proportion of religiously selective schools are not properly publishing their admission arrangements, thereby depriving parents of the information they need to navigate the admissions process.

Lord Nash

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any changes are necessary to make the admissions system work more effectively for parents, these will be subject to a full public consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice they received on the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises’ productivity levels following the withdrawal of HM Revenue and Custom’s valuation check service.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

No impact on the productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises is anticipated. HMRC has not withdrawn the valuation service for those share schemes most relevant to these enterprises.

These include:

• Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI),

• Company Share Option Plans (CSOP),

• Save As You Earn share option schemes (SAYE),

• Share Incentive Plans (SIP) and

• Employee Shareholder Status (ESS).

  HMRC has however announced a review of the valuation services for those schemes and is consulting interested parties.

  HMRC has withdrawn valuation checks for income tax and PAYE that are not part of these recognised employee ownership schemes. Most people submitted acceptable valuations and therefore the valuation service offered was not seen as needed.