Tag: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recourse or right of appeal is available to a member of the public removed from, or prevented from working with, a local healthwatch by the contractors.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department currently has no plans to undertake an investigation in to the performance of local Healthwatch organisations. In March 2015 the Department published a report commissioned from the King’s Fund – Local Healthwatch: Progress and promise – which set out the progress that local Healthwatch have made since being established in 2013. Transparency about the performance of local Healthwatch organisations is provided through the annual reports which they are required to publish. Reports on how the local Healthwatch network as a whole is operating and the nature of the support needed to deliver their activities effectively are discussed at quarterly public meetings of the Healthwatch England Committee.

Arrangements for ensuring local Healthwatch statutory activities are delivered in each area are a matter for local authorities. The Local Government Association has published guidance to support local Healthwatch and local commissioners in putting in place good governance arrangements, which includes clarity about the roles of all parties involved.

Neither the Department nor Healthwatch England are aware of local Healthwatch contractors refusing to engage with the public in their area. Where Healthwatch England is made aware of concerns in relation to local Healthwatch around governance or local relationships with specific individuals or organisations, it seeks to provide support to resolve these where appropriate. Members of the public are able to raise concerns though the complaints process of the local Healthwatch or the commissioning local authority.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the NHS Strategic Projects Team is to be held to account for the advice it gave to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, and to the NHS Commissioning Board, on the contract for older people’s services in Cambridge and Peterborough.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England advises that it will be commissioning an investigation into the circumstances leading up to the termination of the contract between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and UnitingCare Partnership LLP to deliver urgent care for the over 65s and adult community services. This will include the role of the Strategic Projects Team. NHS England is also considering how similar contracts will be managed and assured in the future.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of patients who are unable to access dermatology specials when they need them.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We have made no such assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the awarding of the Staffordshire Cancer and End of Life Services Contract will be delayed pending publication of the investigation commissioned by NHS England into the circumstances leading up to the termination of the contract between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and UnitingCare Partnership to deliver urgent care for the over-65s and adult community services.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England advises that the award of any contract for the cancer and end of life service procurements in Staffordshire will take place only after NHS England has carried out an assurance exercise around the proposed arrangements. The design of this assurance exercise will be informed by the outcome of the review of the termination of the contract between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and UnitingCare Partnership.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of current morale in the teaching profession.

Lord Nash

According to the OECD’s ‘Teaching and Learning International Survey’ (2013), 82 per cent of teachers surveyed in England either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that ‘all in all, I am satisfied with my job.’ This information is published in the attached research report ‘Teachers in England’s Secondary Schools: Evidence from TALIS 2013’.

In addition, the latest statistics (School Workforce Census, November 2014) show that teacher retention rates one year after qualifying have remained stable for the past two decades, at around 90 per cent. Furthermore, 72 per cent of those who qualified in 2009 were still in teaching five years later, and the long-term retention rate is also stable, with over 60 per cent of teachers remaining in the classroom 10 years after qualifying.

The Government is committed to raising the status of the teaching profession. We are supporting the establishment of a new, independent College of Teaching, and are offering postgraduate bursaries of up to £30,000 for trainee teachers starting initial teacher training in 2016/17, depending on their degree classification and the subject they plan to teach.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prescriptions, per year, are (1) made for students aged 19–25, and (2) not collected by students aged 19–25.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We do not collect this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what general steps they plan to take to ensure that all schools change their admission arrangements in line with recommendations by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

Lord Nash

Where the Schools Adjudicator determines that a school’s admission arrangements do not comply with the School Admissions Code, the admission authority has a statutory duty to revise its admission arrangements. The school must comply with the Adjudicator’s decision within two months of the decision or by 28 February following the decision, whichever is sooner, unless an alternative timescale is specified by the Adjudicator.

An Adjudicator’s decision is binding and enforceable by the Secretary of State.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they will take to ensure that the NHS Supply Chain wound dressing generics project takes account of evidence comparing the cost of managing unhealed and healed wounds, and of the total cost of wound care in the NHS currently as compared with previous estimates.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The review of wound dressings by a dedicated working group resulted in the development of a number of clinical specifications for wound care products.

In order to progress this work, from April 2016 a new NHS Clinical Evaluation Team will be put in place. The Clinical Evaluation Team will assess wound care products through a comprehensive evaluation process, which will have extensive engagement with NHS clinical staff. Included in the process will be tissue viability and infection control nurses, clinical procurement specialists, doctors, nurses and midwives along with medicine management practitioners from community trusts.

The project’s remit is to review clinical products to identify those that enable high quality patient care whilst delivering the best outcomes for the NHS. The secondary consideration will be to identify products that could be procured more effectively through combined NHS buying power, to deliver greater overall value for money.

The Clinical Evaluation Team is made up of practising clinicians.

The project will therefore undertake assessments of the total costs and benefits of any recommendations to the overall NHS.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch will be responsible for overseeing the National Reporting and Learning System.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch will not be responsible for overseeing the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS). The national safety functions, including the responsibility for overseeing the NRLS, will be transferring to NHS Improvement from 1 April 2016. The Government announced this decision in July 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the additional costs to the NHS of (1) Care Quality Commission fee increases, (2) the cost of pension changes announced in the budget as a result of re-evaluation, and (3) the decision of NHS Property Services to charge market rates for the use of NHS buildings, in each financial year from 2016–17 to 2020–21.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Government policy requires the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to move towards fully recovering the chargeable costs of regulating health and adult social care in England. The amounts that the CQC charges to providers differ depending on the cost of regulation in each sector and how close they are currently to full cost recovery.

Following the Government’s Spending Review, the CQC recommended a two-year trajectory to reach full cost recovery, taking into account the level of grant-in-aid available to the organisation for 2016/17 to enable the CQC to fulfil its statutory functions. The Secretary of State consented to the CQC’s proposals. The Secretary of State also announced that the Government will make available extra funding for general practice to reflect a number of increasing cost pressures, of which increased CQC fees are a part.

The Government estimates the total impact of the change in the discount rate will be an overall increase in the cost of employer contributions across the major public service pension schemes of £2 billion a year. Until the results of the next valuation of the NHS Pension Scheme, which commenced this year, are known we will not know the total impact on employer contribution rates, including the change to the discount rate announced in the Budget 2016. We expect to have the results of the current valuation by Budget 2018; the results of this valuation will set the cost employers pay from 2019/20.

In regards to NHS Property Services’ charges to the National Health Service, overall, these will increase by in the region of £60 million, though the impact on individual occupiers will vary. Some increasing, and some not increasing. The Department has agreed with NHS England to meet any net increase in costs at a national level and NHS England will allocate funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to ensure all cost changes are fully mitigated in 2016/17. General Practitioners will receive adjustments for rental changes through the normal reimbursement arrangements. Arrangements in relation to funding adjustments for 2017/18 and beyond will be considered in conjunction with NHS England and NHS Improvement and we anticipated will be communicated by the end of the first quarter of 2016/17.