Tag: Lord Ouseley

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to continue with the Troubled Families Programme in the light of the National Institute of Economics and Social Research’s recent analysis.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

At the Spending Review 2015, £720 million was allocated to fund the remaining four years of the new Troubled Families Programme (2015 – 2020). We are absolutely committed to continuing to help this group of people, to help these vulnerable families that have some of the most complex needs of people in the country. We are looking at the evidence from the evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme (2012-2015) to see how things could be done differently, to learn from it and see if there is even more we can do to improve the lives of troubled families.

We have already learnt lessons from the first Troubled Families Programme and reflected them in the design of the new programme. We have published an overview of the first programme (attached) which highlights the improvements that have been made: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-first-troubled-families-programme-2012-to-2015-an-overview

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase the proportion of people with atrial fibrillation who are treated with anticoagulation therapy in order to prevent stroke.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has identified improved management of atrial fibrillation as a priority for reducing premature mortality.

NHS Improving Quality (NHS IQ) is taking action on atrial fibrillation. It is promoting the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within GP practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the NHS, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with atrial fibrillation who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. NHS IQ is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

To support this work, NHS IQ recently published an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF. A copy of this analysis is attached.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also published a Quality Standard on atrial fibrillation in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality atrial fibrillation service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy is attached. The Quality and Outcomes Framework contains indicators for the management of AF which cover the use of anticoagulation therapy. This provides a further incentive for doctors to ensure AF patients receive anticoagulation where appropriate to manage their risk of stroke.

Public Health England (PHE) has recently published their Atlas of Variation which includes data on atrial fibrillation. Full data for all 216 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) cannot be included in this reply due to its large size, but a map giving an overview of the results is attached. PHE have also collaborated with the Stroke Association to produce individualised CCG level reports on current performance in the detection and management of patients with atrial fibrillation to try and encourage poorly performing areas to improve.

The majority of the Strategic Clinical Networks (SCNs) have made atrial fibrillation management a priority, and in London the three Academic Health Science Networks and the SCN have identified atrial fibrillation as being the first area where there is a collaborative effort to improve performance.

One of the options now available for clinicians managing patients with atrial fibrillation is the novel oral anticoagulants. These drugs are useful when patients are unable or unwilling to tolerate warfarin and should result in a greater proportion of the population with atrial fibrillation being effectively treated. Additionally, NICE have now approved the use of devices to self-monitor warfarin, reducing the need for patients to attend health centres for blood testing. Again this should make anticoagulation easier and more acceptable for some patients.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to respond to the report by 4Children Britain’s Families Thriving or Striving?, and in particular the surveyed views of young people aged 16–24 that they wanted more political education in schools.

Lord Nash

The new national curriculum includes an improved programme of study for citizenship education at key stages 3 and 4. The programme of study is designed to prepare pupils to play a full and active part in society and fosters political awareness. In citizenship lessons, pupils learn about democracy, government, and how laws are made and upheld. These lessons should equip pupils to explore political and social issues critically, to weigh evidence, to debate, and to make reasoned arguments.

In partnership with youth organisations, the Cabinet Office has published a collection of democratic engagement learning resources developed in partnership with organisations such as UK Youth and Scottish Youth Parliament. They are designed to enable different groups, including young people and students, to discuss the importance of democratic participation and registering to vote. These learning resources, such as Rock Enrol!, are available to download for free and can be used in schools to encourage young people to participate in democracy and register to vote.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to take any action to ensure that local authorities comply with their legal duty to provide to homeless families temporary accommodation that is safe and suitable.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Housing Act 1996 requires that local housing authorities must ensure that all temporary accommodation they secure is suitable. Not to do so is unlawful. Households in temporary accommodation have the legal right to seek a review of any decision to place them in unsuitable accommodation. If households are unsatisfied with the response then they have redress to the courts.

To help frontline decision makers make those decisions right first time DCLG fund the National Homelessness Advice Service to provide free expert advice, training and support to homelessness professionals. In December 2015 Government also provided a £5 million fund to help the 25 councils facing the most significant homelessness pressures to ensure people are moved from temporary accommodation and into suitable homes as soon as possible.

Households leaving temporary accommodation now spend, on average, less time in temporary accommodation than they did in 2010. The numbers of households in temporary accommodation remain well below their peak, when they hit 101,000 in 2004.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether consideration is being given to prohibiting the use of tasers in detained settings for people with mental health conditions.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The deployment of police officers to mental health settings and the tactics used are an operational matter for the police.

Any use of force by police officers must be appropriate, proportionate, necessary and conducted as safely as is possible. If police officers need to use force, it is right that they are expected to account for their actions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to relaxing visa restrictions for those seeking to come to Britain as carers in order tackle nursing and care home staffing shortages.

Lord Bates

Tier 2 of the Points Based System for immigration – the skilled work route – has been reserved for graduate occupations since 2011. Carers do not qualify for entry to the UK under this route and sponsors are therefore unable to bring in workers from outside the EEA to fill such roles.

While the Government acknowledges that care work requires certain skills, it should be possible to source those skills from the resident workforce. The care sector, like others, needs to reduce its dependency on migration and develop a sustainable strategy for tackling high vacancy and turnover rates by doing more to attract, train and retain resident workers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to providing support for the estimated 2.5 million children being brought up by parents who are heavy alcohol drinkers.

Lord Nash

We are clear that all children at risk of abuse or neglect – including those children who may be a risk because of their parent’s alcoholism – must be identified early, have timely and proportionate assessments of their individual needs, and have the right services provided at the right time.

That is why the Government has put in place a range of cross-Government programmes and funding to support children and families, including children of alcoholics. We have invested more than £8 billion to help councils put services in place to protect children at risk of abuse or neglect, including from alcoholic parents. We have encouraged councils to find new ways to tackle problems through our £100m children’s social care Innovation Programme. And we have expanded the Troubled Families programme launched in April 2015, which offers support on health issues to up to 400,000 families, including for alcohol and drug misuse.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for social and community cohesion of people living in poverty.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Building a strong economy and increasing employment are the surest way to lift people out of poverty and build strong and cohesive communities. The latest figures show a record 31.6 million people are now in work making a real difference to families on the ground with the number of children in workless households at a record low.

Britain has a claim to be the most successful multi-faith, multi-racial democracy in the world. The Community Life Survey 2014-15 shows a well-integrated society with 87 per cent of people reporting they belong strongly to Britain and 86 per cent that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together. But we know deep seated inequalities remain between some minority groups and the majority population, and have set in train work to address these inequalities:

• a review by Louise Casey into boosting opportunity and integration in the most isolated and deprived communities to inform a major new Cohesive Communities Programme;
• a 2020 vision to increase Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic opportunities, such as take up of apprenticeships and employment; and
• plans to publish a Life Chances Strategy, announced in January, setting out a comprehensive plan to fight disadvantage and extend opportunity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-12-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many children move schools each month because of bullying, and what assessment they have made of the implications of such moves for the education system and the children affected.

Lord Nash

The Department does not collect information on the number of children who move school each month because of bullying.

All bullying is unacceptable and every school is required to have a behaviour policy including measures to tackle all forms of bullying. They are held to account by Ofsted and inspectors will look at records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour.

In 2015-16, the Government is providing £3.3m to charitable organisations to help tackle bullying and to provide support for those who are bullied. This is further to the £4m provided over the period 2013-15.

Levels of bullying have reduced as a consequence of the efforts of schools and anti-bullying charities. The Longitudinal Study of Young Peoplein England published by the Department in November 2015 compared experiences of bullying among two cohorts of 14 year olds (year 10 students)from 2004 and 2014. It found that 30,000 fewer people in year 10 in 2014 said they had been bullied in the last twelve months. This represented a decrease from 41 per cent in 2004 to 36 per cent in 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for participation in the democratic processes as a consequence of reports that 8000,000 names have dropped off the electoral roll following the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now published the statistics for the December 2015 electoral registers. The full report can be found here:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/elections/electoralregistration/bulletins/electoralstatisticsforuk/2015
The number of entries on a register is not a measure of success – entries need to be up-to-date and accurate. That is why completing the transition to Individual Electoral Registration was so important; it meant we could remove out of date or inaccurate entries from the register and retain those that had already been confirmed as genuine. Any eligible elector missing from the register can apply to register to vote at any time and with online registration it is now easier and more convenient than ever before.