Tag: Lord Warner

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the objection submitted to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator that a state-funded school sought to prioritise the admission of children on the basis of whether or not their parents have sex during the period of a mother’s menstruation.

Lord Nash

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any 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 2016-03-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether NHS trusts can breach price caps on agency spending if they consider that it is essential to do so in order to ensure patient safety.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS trusts are able to override the price caps on agency spending if it is considered essential to do so to ensure the safety of patients.

The circumstances in which trusts can override the caps is set out in the attached guidance: ‘Price Caps for Agency Staff: Rules’.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the additional national insurance contributions that will be made in the first year of the introduction of the National Living Wage; and what assessment they have made of whether that source of revenue could be used to fund the extra cost of publicly-funded social care.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

As set out in Table B.3 in of their July 2015 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility estimate that, by 2020-21, the National Living Wage will increase income tax and NICs receipts by around £0.1bn. They assume that, by 2020-21, the overall impact of the policy on the public finances is to reduce public sector net borrowing by £0.2bn.

The Chancellor will set out full plans for public expenditure at the Spending Review on 25th November.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Department of Health or NHS England has made of the risk of the wide-scale withdrawal of adult social care providers from publicly-funded social care markets and the implications of such a withdrawal for the NHS; and whether such a possible withdrawal features on the Department of Health risk register.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department monitors a number of risks to the health and social care system through its high level risk register, including the availability of good quality adult social care that is affordable for local authority and National Health Service commissioners.

The Department is working with local authorities, NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and the provider sector to understand the extent of this risk and its potential drivers, which will include consideration of the extent to which some providers are possibly withdrawing from the publically funded adult social care market.

The Care Act (2014) places duties on local authorities to step in and ensure people’s needs continue to be met if a provider fails financially and services cease. The Department has worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Information Unit to publish guidance to support local authorities develop effective contingency plans for provider failure – Care and Continuity: Contingency planning for provider failure. The guidance is attached. The guidance recommends that contingency plans are co-produced with relevant partners, including NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups to ensure these plans are aligned.

Local authorities routinely manage market exits in their area and discharge their Care Act duties. If a situation arose that local authorities found challenging, for example because of its scale and the lack of spare capacity in the area, the Department would work with partners to support them.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the finding of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year An Unholy Mess that a number of religiously selective schools have been breaking the Equality Act 2010 by directly discriminating on the basis of race or gender.

Lord Nash

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any 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 whether Birmingham City Council has corporately decided to place their children’s social care services into an arms-length trust; when this decision was made; whether all such services will become the responsibility of the trust; and what papers relating to any such decision are in the public domain.

Lord Nash

On 24 May 2016 Birmingham City Council announced its intention to create a trust to deliver its children’s social care functions. No decisions have yet been taken on the form or scope of any future delivery model, including the services it may be responsible for, and so no papers are currently publically available. Formal decisions will need to be taken in due course by the Cabinet of Birmingham City Council and the Secretary of State for Education.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their experience with the collapse of Southern Cross, what contingency plans they have in the event of a significant withdrawal of large and medium-sized providers of residential and nursing home care from the provision of publicly-funded social care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

It is unacceptable for vulnerable people who need care and support to have their services interrupted if their provider fails financially.

The Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to step in and ensure people’s needs continue to be met if their provider fails financially and their services cease. These duties apply to all people receiving care services, regardless of who pays for them, and there are reciprocal arrangements in all countries of the United Kingdom. The Government has supported local authorities with this duty and recently published guidance for local authorities to assist them in developing contingency plans for managing provider failure. This guidance was co-produced with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government information Unit.

The Care Act also established the Care Quality Commission (CQC) with a new function to oversee the finances of the largest and most difficult to replace providers. This oversight function would provide early warning to relevant local authorities in the event that one of the providers in the CQC scheme was likely to fail financially and their services cease. This would allow local authorities time to implement contingency plans. This CQC Market Oversight scheme is now fully functional.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Department of Health, NHS England, or the Care Quality Commission, have made of the availability of residential care for people with learning difficulty at the rates that local authorities across England are now able to pay for such accommodation; and what information the Care Quality Commission has on the availability of such accommodation as part of their market oversight function.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Information about the availability of residential care for people with learning difficulties and the fee rates paid by local authorities for these services is not collected centrally. Commissioning adult social care is a matter for local authorities as they are best placed to understand the needs their local people and communities, and how best to meet them.

The Department has put in place a range of Sector-Led Improvement support to help local authorities to improve their commissioning practice, and to comply with the statutory guidance. For example the Department funds the Local Government Association (LGA) and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) to deliver, through their regional networks, practical risk assessment tools and hands-on improvement support delivered by a cohort of professional experts.

The Department has also worked with ADASS, LGA and others to co-produce a set of commissioning standards, Commissioning for Better Outcomes that was re-launched in October 2015. These standards amplify the good practice set out in the statutory guidance, and provide a further practical resource on which to base local risk assessment and to guide improvement support and action planning where required. The standards are attached.

There has been no assessment by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the availability of residential care for people with learning difficulty at the rates that local authorities across England are now able to pay for such accommodation and the CQC holds no information on the availability of such accommodation as part of its Market Oversight function. This is because these issues fall outside the scope of the Market Oversight Scheme.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the finding of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year An Unholy Mess that a significant number of religiously selective schools are asking parents for information they do not need, and are not allowed to ask for, such as whether they are UK nationals or speak English as an additional language.

Lord Nash

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any 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 what guidance has been issued by the Department for Education to local authorities about the transfer of children’s social care services to an arms-length trust; and what role the Department and its Ministers play in advising or approving local authority decisions to make such transfers, including provision of financial support.

Lord Nash

The Department for Education has not issued guidance to local authorities about the transfer of children’s social care services to a trust. The Prime Minister announced in December 2015 that, where Ofsted find persistent or systematic failure in a council’s children’s social care services, we will appoint a commissioner to review, within three months, whether services should be removed from council control. There is now a presumption that services will be placed outside of the Council’s control in these cases, unless the Commissioner identifies good reasons not to do so.

Decisions to transfer local authority children’s social care services to other organisations are subject to ministerial approval only where a local authority is in intervention following an inadequate Ofsted judgement. Other high-performing local authorities are also considering innovative delivery models, such as trusts, for their services. Financial support may be provided on a case-by-case basis.