Tag: Lord Ouseley

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Ofsted report highlighting a 60 per cent increase in the number of children who have died as a result of abuse and neglect in the past year.

Lord Nash

The death of any child is a tragedy. We want all children at risk of abuse or neglect to be identified early, to have timely and proportionate assessments of their individual needs, and to have the right services provided at the right time.

The Ofsted statistical release, Serious Incident Notifications from local authority children’s services 2015, reports a 17 percent increase in the number of cases of child death being notified to Ofsted compared to the previous year. The rise in numbers of deaths reported to Ofsted does not necessarily indicate a rise in the number of child deaths. The official figures for the number of child deaths in 2014-2015 will be published by Office for National Statistics (ONS) later in the year.

The Ofsted statistical release contains experimental data, based on information supplied by local authorities about serious incident notifications. What constitutes a serious incident is set out in statutory guidance, Working Together 2015. The Ofsted report is just one of a range of data sources relating to serious incidents involving children. It is not, however, the official source of data on child deaths, which is collected by the ONS. The Government also publishes reviews of homicide and child deaths, which together enable a more accurate assessment of the number and causes of child death.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take to prevent mental health services from turning away children who seek help.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Children and young people’s mental health (CYPMH) is a priority area for this Government. It is committed to delivering the vision set out in Future in mind, the previous Government’s report on the work of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce. This report established a clear and powerful consensus about change across the whole system, including health, social care and education. To support this transformation programme the Government is committed to making an additional £1.4 billion available over the course of this Parliament.

As a first step in this transformation programme all clinical commissioning groups working with their partners, have developed Local Transformation Plans to transform their offer for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. These plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues: from prevention and improving access, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services.

Whilst the intention is to prevent mental health problems from arising in the first place, improving access for those who have developed problems as early as possible is essential. By 2020, at least 70,000 more children and young people each year will have access to high quality mental health care when they need it. This will require systems for rapid identification of children in need of specialised services, and improved links between different agencies so that children and young people are referred to the most appropriate service. £28 million is being spent on extending and expanding the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme so that by 2018 all children and young people across England will have access to evidence-based and appropriate interventions. The Government has also invested nearly £3 million into the Mental Health Services and Schools Links Pilots to jointly train designated leads in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and schools to improve access to mental health services for children and young people. This should reduce the number of children being turned away from services and lead to the ‘no wrong door’ approach that is integral to the transformation programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many individuals have been tasered by the police in England since 2012 and what protected diversity characteristics applied to each individual.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Home Office publish police use of TASER ® X26 statistics annually on GOV.UK. These releases contain statistics on police use of TASER ® X26 from the 43 Home Office police forces in England and Wales up to 2015. Protected diversity characteristics do not form part of this collection. The table below shows total police use of TASER ® X26 across England and Wales since 2012.

	2012	2013	2014	2015	Total use of TASER ® X26 since 2012
Number of times TASER ® X26 was used	8,161	10,380	10,095	10,401	39,037

Source: Home Office

Following the former Chief Constable David Shaw Use of Force Data review, published in July 2016, a new data collection is being implemented by the police which will allow for some protected characteristic data from 2016. We expect the data collected to be published locally by police forces and a sub-set of the data to be included in the mandatory annual data return for forces in 2017/18 for publication as Official Statistics. The current TASER publications can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/use-of-taser-statistics

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures exist, or are planned, to ensure that audit and accountancy firms accused of devising unlawful tax-avoidance schemes are investigated and censured, where appropriate.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

In the March 2015 Budget, the Government challenged the accountancy and tax professional bodies to improve how they deal with their members who promote tax-avoidance schemes.

The professional bodies have responded positively to this challenge and are working with HM Revenue and Customs to agree a new standard with which their members will need to adhere to.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provision they plan to make to meet the shortfall of residential care home places for elderly people in the light of home closures and increased demand for social care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Adult social care is largely delivered by a market of independent providers. As in any market, there is inevitable change which will give rise to local fluctuations in capacity. We are not aware of any systemic shortfall of residential care home places.

Under the Care Act (2014), local authorities have duties to shape their local market to ensure there is adequate provision of good quality, appropriate services to meet the changing needs of their local population, including for people who do not get state-funding.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the cost of bed-blocking in NHS hospitals in each of the past three years and what plans they have to invest in social care services to reduce those costs.

Lord Prior of Brampton

To date, the Department has made no formal estimate of the costs of delayed discharge to the National Health Service. However, the Department and NHS Improvement are working together to implement Lord Carter’s recommendations on hospital productivity. As part of this, the two organisations are working with providers to develop a richer dataset around all aspects of the patient pathway, including estimates of the cost of delayed discharge.

At the same time, the Department continues to work closely with the NHS and local government to help local areas improve transfers out of hospital, share best practice, and reduce unnecessary delays. We are funding the NHS’s own plan for the future with £10 billion and we are giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion of new support for adult social care by 2019/20.

Since April 2015, the Government’s £5.3 billion Better Care Fund has provided much needed investment in better integrated care through locally developed plans and by putting resources where the local NHS and social services think they are needed. Alongside this we are working with local areas to improve the transfer of patients back into the communities.

In 2016-17, there is a new Better Care Fund requirement on local areas to develop a clear, focused action plan for managing delays, including locally agreed targets. The requirement is designed to reduce delays across the health and care system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to tackle the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry, and what assessment they have made of the implications of that shortage for their housing and infrastructure programmes.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government is undertaking a range of activities to support skills in the infrastructure and home building sectors. These include the reform of the apprenticeship system, the new apprenticeship levy, and the National Colleges Programme – which includes the National College for High Speed Rail. From April 2015 all government procurers of construction and infrastructure projects over £10 million are to include measures in pre-qualification and contract delivery to encourage skills development.

The Construction Leadership Council and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have separately undertaken work to encourage more people into the construction sector, including the launch of the GO-Construct website and work with the National Careers Service and Construction Ambassadors for schools. The CITB has also been working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Armed Forces resettlement service and Local Enterprise Partnerships to encourage experienced individuals into the sector. In total, £42 million was invested by CITB, supporting 18,500 construction apprentices in 2015.

In addition, the Transport Infrastructure Skills Strategy, produced under the oversight of Terry Morgan, Chair of Crossrail, will set out further actions to be taken specifically to ensure the supply of skills to deliver transport infrastructure.

Assessments of demand for construction skills include the National Infrastructure Plan for Skills, which estimates that 250,000 construction and 150,000 engineering construction workers will be required to meet demand in the infrastructure sector by 2020. The CITB estimate that 224,000 new construction jobs are set to be created in the UK over the next five years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking in the light of NASUWT’s finding that 74 per cent of teachers are seriously considering leaving the profession in the next two years; and what assessment they have made of the implications of that finding for the education system.

Lord Nash

As the Secretary of State for Education outlined in her speech at the NASUWT conference on 26 March 2016, we want to see unions do everything they can to build morale, promote the teaching profession and tell people what a rewarding job teaching is. Approximately 90% of all teachers continue in the profession following their first year of teaching and this has been the case since 1996; and over 70% of those who qualified in 2009 were still in teaching five years later. Given the proportion of teachers leaving has remained stable over the last 20 years, we would not expect the proportion of teachers leaving the profession to increase to the levels reported by this survey.

We recognise that it is vital for schools to be able to retain good teachers. That is why we have made policy interventions in the areas teachers tell us matter most such as reducing unnecessary workload. We have recently published reports, addressing the three biggest issues emerging from the Workload Challenge – ineffective marking, use of planning and resources and data management. The reports set out clear principles about what should happen in schools, and make recommendations to be taken at every level in the school system.

We have accepted all the recommendations and will encourage the dissemination of the principles and messages clearly set out, to help enable the culture change the reports refer to.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen on 16 September (HL1556), how many young people participated in the National Citizen Service programmes during (1) 2014, and (2) 2015; how those participants were recruited; and how much expenditure was incurred in each year.

Lord Ashton of Hyde

In 2014, 57,789 young people took part in NCS throughout England. The number of young people who took part in the programme in 2015 will be released as part of the independent evaluation of the 2015 programme in due course.

Information on annual NCS expenditure can be found in the published NCS Trust accounts, which are available online through Companies House.

All recruitment is the responsibility of the NCS Trust, the independent organisation which delivers NCS. Recruitment is carried out through the NCS supply chain which includes more than 200 delivery organisations. NCS recruitment primarily takes place in schools, but young people can also sign up through the NCS website.

A range of other local channels support NCS recruitment, including partnerships with local authorities, youth groups, community and voluntary organisations, as well as NCS graduates.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-11-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Report Is Britain fairer?, particularly with regard to the employment and earnings prospects of young people aged 16 to 24.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is an independent body, and its report “Is Britain Fairer?” covers a five-year period spanning the Labour and Coalition governments. We welcome the positive areas of progress and note the key challenges to which it refers. The information in the report will be used by the EHRC to help develop its next strategic plan, covering the period 2016-19.

Giving young people the skills that businesses need is important. That is why our work to ensure 3 million apprenticeship starts in England over this Parliament is crucial.

According to London Economics, the lifetime benefits associated with the acquisition of Apprenticeships at Level 2 and 3 are very significant, standing at between £48,000 and £74,000 for Level 2 and between £77,000 and £117,000 for Level 3 Apprenticeships.

The latest data shows that 89% of apprentices are satisfied with their apprenticeship; 85% of apprentices said their ability to do the job had improved, and 83% of apprentices said their career prospects had improved.