Tag: Lord Warner

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-11-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the budget figures for the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government include provision for the implementation of the Dilnot Commission proposals for capping individual liability for social care, as under the Care Act 2014; and if so, in which years such provision has been made.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government remains committed to introducing the cap on reasonable care costs and extension of means tested support, which will come into force and be funded from April 2020. The Spending Review 2015 sets budgets for the next four years to 2019/20. The final year includes funding to cover the costs of local authorities preparing to implement the changes the following year. This start date is also indicated in the Autumn Statement 2015, as the delayed annually managed expenditure impact of this policy is shown with the policy starting in 2020.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they estimate will be the percentage of gross domestic product spent on (1) the NHS and public health, (2) publicly financed adult social care, and (c) both of those, following the allocations and economic forecast in the 2015 Spending Review.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department is unable to provide estimated spend figures as a percentage of United Kingdom gross domestic product.

The Department reports on health expenditure in England but we are not in a position to provide equivalent health estimated spend figures from the devolved administrations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 15 February (HL5803), what assessment they have made of the criticisms of the admissions practices of a significant number of religiously selective schools in the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association; and what action they are taking to stop any such practices.

Lord Nash

Schools which are found by the Schools Adjudicator to have aspects of their admission arrangements which do not comply with the Schools Admissions Code are required to amend their arrangements to ensure they are compliant.

The Department carefully considers the recommendations of the Chief Schools Adjudicator, as well as feedback from parents and other members of the sector. Where we consider 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 Warner on 2016-05-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which local authorities have had their children’s services transferred into arms-length trusts; whether these transfers cover all such services; what Ofsted reports are available on such transferred services; and what changes in performance these reports show.

Lord Nash

Doncaster Children’s Services Trust took over responsibility for delivering all children’s social care functions, apart from services for disabled children and universal early help services, on behalf of the council under Direction from the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in September 2014. Ofsted inspected children’s services in Doncaster in September 2015. The judgement was inadequate overall. However, the inspection found improvement since the previous inspection in 2012, when all sub-judgements were inadequate. In 2015, all sub-judgements were requires improvement, save for children in need of help and protection, which was inadequate; and adoption performance, which was good.

Slough Children’s Services Trust took over responsibility for the provision of children’s early help and social care functions along with specific special educational needs services on behalf of the council under direction from the Secretary of State for Education in September 2015. Ofsted inspected children’s social care services in Slough in November 2015, less than 8 weeks after the Trust went live. The judgement was ‘inadequate’ overall. Despite the short amount of time that the trust had been in operation at the time of the inspection, Ofsted commented positively on the impact of the Trust leadership. Their report described how the pace of improvement accelerated since it was established. Encouragingly the inspectors reported that there were clear signs that the Trust understands what needs to change and there is evidence that it can deliver the required improvements.

Achieving for Children is a social enterprise company that delivers all education support and children’s services, as well as integrated health services for children with disabilities, on behalf of Kingston Upon Thames and Richmond Upon Thames councils. Prior to the creation of this voluntary trust in April 2014, safeguarding and looked after children services in Kingston were judged to be inadequate in May 2012, and child protection services were judged to be inadequate in June 2013. Children’s services in Kingston were judged to be good when they were inspected again in May 2015. Children’s services in Richmond were last inspected in March 2012 when they were rated good.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-11-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the resource Departmental Expenditure Count figure for the NHS in 2016–17, set out in Table 2.9 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, includes provision for a rolled forward overspend from 2015–16; and if not, how any such overspend will be treated.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Department of Health has plans in place to manage Trust deficits in 2015-16 within the overall health budget.

The agreed Spending Review funding supports the NHS’s own detailed assessment of pressures over the Parliament – including from an ageing and growing population. In 2016-17 total NHS funding will increase by £3.8bn in real terms, equivalent to a 3.6 per cent real terms increase.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the actual expenditure on public health in (1) 1996–97, (2) 2000–01, (3) 2009–10, and (4) 2014–15; and what percentage of total expenditure on the NHS and public health those amounts represent.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Expenditure on public health in 2014-15 was £5,062 million.

Public health expenditure in 2014-15 represents 4.5% of total Departmental health expenditure of £113,345 million.

The Department is unable to provide figures on public health from earlier years as prior to 2013-14 primary care trusts were responsible for public health and budgets were determined locally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5282), what were the sources and total cost of the non-recurrent deficit support income” used to fund directly the 125 trusts that would otherwise have been in deficit in financial year 2014/15; how many of those deficit trusts continued to require such deficit support during the financial year 2015/16; how many other NHS trusts are likely to receive such support in financial year 2015/16; what is the estimated total cost of such deficit support in financial year 2015/16; and what is the forecast contingency provision for such support in financial year 2016/17.”

Lord Prior of Brampton

To clarify my previous answer on 27 January (HL5282), 15 National Health Service providers received non-recurrent deficit support income from the Department in 2014/15, and without this income seven organisations would have reported a year-end deficit. This would have added to the 118 NHS providers that reported a financial deficit, resulting in a total of 125 NHS providers reporting an underlying deficit.

The total cost of this deficit support income was £176.3 million in 2014/15. Funding for this was provided through releasing resources from areas where there were no clear plans for spending.

The deficit support income does have the presentational effect of reducing or removing the deficit but the underlying deficit position is transparent in reporting and provider accounts and still remains until the trusts are in recurrent balance and are no longer needing financial support.

2015/16 information will be published alongside the Department’s accounts and providers are expected to report this income separately in their accounts.

For 2016/17, the £1.8 billion Sustainability and Transformation Fund will help providers to move to a sustainable financial footing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-05-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when children’s social care services in Doncaster were transferred to a trust; what were the costs, including legal fees, of making the transfer; how long the transfer took to implement once the decision in principle was made; what Ofsted inspections have taken place in Doncaster since the trust’s establishment; and what was the Ofsted rating of the services in any such reports.

Lord Nash

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council was issued with a Statutory Direction in August 2013, which required the Council to cooperate in setting up a Trust. The Trust became operational on 30 September 2014. The Department for Education met the costs of setting up the trust, which came to £2.9 million.

Ofsted inspected children’s services in Doncaster in September 2015. The judgement was inadequate overall. However, the inspection found improvement since the previous inspection in 2012, when all sub-judgements were inadequate. In 2015 all sub-judgements were requires improvement, save for children in need of help and protection, which was inadequate; and adoption performance, which was good.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 23 November (HL3565), in discharging their oversight function, about which care homes the Care Quality Commission has alerted local authorities during 2015 that a provider was likely to fail financially and their services cease.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. The CQC has advised that it has not issued any notifications to local authorities under the Market Oversight Scheme to date.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what public health requirements were included in NHS England’s mandate for 2014–15, and which of those were achieved.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England commissions certain public health services through the National Health Service Public Health (Section 7A) Functions Agreement including national programmes for immunisation and screening, health and justice and (prior to 1 October 2015) public health services for children aged 0-5.

NHS England’s Mandate for 2014-15 included commitments to support improved public health through the promotion of early diagnosis of illness and using NHS staff contact with patients to help people stay in good health.

The extent to which NHS England has met its commitments under the Section 7A Agreement and the Mandate for 2014-15 is set out in the relevant accountability statements, a copy of which is attached for each one.