Tag: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what legislative changes they propose in order to bring together Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority within NHS Improvement.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We are bringing together Monitor, the Trust Development Authority (TDA), and patient safety and improvement functions from across the health system, under one single leadership and operating model – known as NHS Improvement.

A number of changes to secondary legislation, covering directions and regulations to the TDA, will be required to support this work. Work is ongoing to bring forward a set of proposals which will be laid before the House in the new year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the investigation General practice commissioning: in whose interests? by The Times and the British Medical Journal, what assessment they have made of whether the conflict of interest guidelines are fulfilled by asking board members with a conflict of interest in an item under discussion during a board meeting to remain silent or leave the room.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England is responsible for providing guidance to clinical commissioning groups on how to manage conflicts of interest.

The current guidance states that:

“Where certain members of a decision-making body have a material interest, they should either be excluded from relevant parts of meetings, or join in the discussion but not participate in the decision-making itself (i.e., not have a vote)….The chair of the meeting has responsibility for deciding whether there is a conflict of interest and the appropriate course of corresponding action.”

NHS England has commenced a review of the Conflicts of Interest Guidance, as part of a wider governance project to strengthen conflicts of interest management across the National Health Service, and this is expected to be published next year. NHS England will formally consult with a number of regulators and national partners in the development of this guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they have made for the capital funding costs of new fluoridation schemes.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Since April 2013 Public Health England (PHE), on behalf of the Secretary of State, has recovered the operational costs of water fluoridation from local authorities served by these arrangements. The Secretary of State is required to meet the reasonable fluoridation capital and operating costs incurred by water undertakers in England and has the power to require local authorities to make payments to the Secretary of State to meet any such costs he has incurred. There are no proposed changes to the legislation affecting these arrangements.

Funding arrangements for the capital costs of new fluoridation schemes in England will need to be agreed between local authorities and PHE, on behalf of the Secretary of State, as part of the preparatory work before the scheme can commence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of pupils take a full EBacc range of subjects in (1) sponsored academies, and (2) maintained schools.

Earl of Courtown

Provisional figures for 2014/15 show that 27.8 per cent of pupils in sponsored academies and 37.5 per cent of pupils in local authority maintained mainstream schools were entered for all components of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

This information is published in the Statistical First Release “Provisional GCSE and equivalent results in England: 2014 to 2015”.[1]

A list of qualifications which count towards the English Baccalaureate is available on the school performance tables’ website.[2]

[1] 2014/15 provisional table can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/467605/SFR37_2015_National_Tables.xlsx. (Years: 2014/15 Table 3a)

[2] A list of qualifications which count towards the English Baccalaureate can be found at: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/secondary_14/English_Baccalaureate_list_of_qualifications_July_2015.xls.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the level of mark-ups on dermatology specials, what consideration they have given to reforming the process by which English NHS tariff prices are set.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Drug Tariff sets out what National Health Service dispensing contractors will be paid for the products supplied as part of providing pharmaceutical services and the fees for providing those services in primary care.

The current arrangements in the Drug Tariff for paying for specials, including dermatological specials, were introduced in 2011. It is recognised that there can be variations in the price of some specials, which is why we are considering further possible improvements in the arrangements that govern the price the NHS pays. These include expanding the number of products covered by these arrangements and improving the data used to set the prices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the requirement laid down by the NHS Commissioning Board for Commissioning Support Units to become autonomous by the end of 2016 is to be removed.

Lord Prior of Brampton

No decision has been made. The proposed change was at the request of Clinical Support Units’ (CSU) Managing Directors – to give greaterflexibility to apply to become autonomous when they are ready, rather than having to work to a fixed timetable. A decision will be taken once NHS England’sCommissioning Committee has met.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) teachers, and (2) Personal, Health and Social Education teachers, currently practising in schools in England, have qualified teacher status.

Lord Nash

The latest statistics show that 96 per cent of the headcount of teachers in service in state funded schools in England (as at November 2014) have qualified teacher status.

Information on the number of teachers teaching Personal, Health and Social Education (PSHE) is only collected for secondary schools in England. Of the estimated 31,000 teachers recorded as teaching PSHE, 96 per cent were recorded as having qualified teacher status.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how NHS England are ensuring that there is no conflict in how Bain and Company supports both vanguards in their application for funds, and NHS England in deciding how to allocate funds.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) commissioned Bain and Company to support vanguards as an extension to work previously commissioned from the company as part of a programme called Future Focused Finance, an initiative sponsored by the Department of Health and arm’s length bodies. This earlier work for the HFMA had focused on the design of a value-based decision effectiveness tool, piloted in Mid-Cheshire and Liverpool. The HFMA, in partnership with NHS England, commissioned the extension to this work so that the tool could be used to support value-based decision-making in the 2016-17 New Care Models programme.

Alternatives were not sought from competitors because the vanguard support built on the original Bain and Company work for the HFMA.

The value of the vanguard support contract is £650,000. Value for money was obtained by negotiation, having been benchmarked with other commissions made by the National Health Service to external health consultancies.

As part of the contract, Bain and Company will be handing over its approach to NHS England, so that NHS England can support other areas in implementing new care models.

Bain and Company has not been commissioned to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication of new care models in other areas. The company is commissioned to develop and implement a framework that appropriately experienced NHS staff can use to assess such evidence. Intellectual property rights in respect of the framework in the future are assigned to HFMA under the terms of the contract. The NHS is entitled to use the framework free of charge in perpetuity.

Bain and Company is involved in the development of the tool used to make the assessment, and in the implementation of the process to use that tool. The company is specifically commissioned to help vanguard sites to use the tool and to summarise the resulting value propositions to facilitate decision-making by NHS England.

No conflict of interest arises as decisions concerning funding allocations for individual vanguards are made by NHS England’s Executive Team and Investment Committee and not Bain and Company.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what legal power the Secretary of State for Health is able to impose junior doctors’ contracts on NHS Foundation Trusts.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Secretary of State is not imposing the junior doctors’ contract on National Health Service foundation trusts which are free to determine the terms and conditions, including pay, for the staff they employ. Most choose to use national contracts. Senior NHS leaders have advised that the new contract, 90% of which was agreed with the British Medical Association, will be fair and reasonable for doctors in training and for the service and will be safer for patients. Health Education England has made clear that a single national approach is essential to safeguard the organisation and delivery of postgraduate medical training. NHS Improvement has stated that it will support trusts to ensure the new national contract is implemented consistently.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current availability of school places.

Lord Nash

Local authorities are rising to the challenge of creating new school places where they are needed – 445,000 new places were added between 2010 and 2014, with many more delivered since then. This was supported by £5 billion of funding allocated to local authorities to create new places between 2011 and 2015.

Supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places in their area remains one of this Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to investing £23 billion in school buildings between now and 2021 to create a further 600,000 new places, open 500 new schools and address essential maintenance needs.