Tag: Lord Warner

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.

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 20 January (HL5278), what are the equivalent figures for public spending on adult social care; and why percentages have declined since 2009/10.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is usually reported on a United Kingdom basis.

The Department is responsible for reporting on adult social care spend in England and is not in a position to provide equivalent spend figures for adult social care by the devolved administrations.

Spend on adult social care in England, including National Health Service transfers, as a percentage of UK GDP is set out in the table below.

	Adult Social Care (ASC) £bn	UK GDP £bn	Percentage of GDP Spent on ASC
2009-10	15.7	1503.6	1.05
2010-11	16.1	1574.9	1.02
2011-12	15.6	1629.1	0.95
2012-13	15.4	1678.9	0.91
2013-14	15.5	1756.2	0.88
2014-15	15.5	1830.4	0.85

Table notes:

1. Spend information for 2009-10 onwards is based upon Department for Communities and Local Government outturn data.
2. 2014-15 figures are from Health & Social Care Information Centre Adult Social Care Finance Return data. This data collection is new for 2014-15 and is not comparable to historical spend figures.
3. GDP figures sourced from HM Treasury 23 December 2015

Ultimately it is a local decision on how much to spend on adult social care. In order to get the deficit under control, local government has had to find its share of the savings.

Councils have risen to the challenge of achieving savings whilst setting balanced budgets, keeping council tax low and maintaining satisfaction in services. Many grant ring fences have been removed over the last five years, giving councils more flexibility to meet local priorities as they see fit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-06-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 June (HL350), what discussions they have had with Birmingham City Council about the consequences if it decides not to create a Trust to deliver its children’s social care functions, in particular regarding whether the Secretary of State plans to issue a Statutory Direction requiring the Council to do so.

Lord Nash

The Department for Education is currently in discussions with Birmingham City Council about the development of a Trust model. The Council is planning to implement this model voluntarily. The Council is aware of the Department’s publically-stated policy that children’s social care services will be removed from the control of councils in cases of persistent or systemic failure, including through the use of a statutory direction where necessary. The Prime Minister made clear, in December, that poorly performing children’s services must improve or they will be taken over by experts. Therefore if the Council is judged to be inadequate by Ofsted again in the future, and does not continue to co-operate in voluntarily transferring its children’s social care services into a Trust, the Government will take action to enforce a Trust if required.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the expenditure of each local authority with adult and children’s social care functions (1) in total, (2) on adult social care, and (3) on children’s social care, and what are (2) and (3) as a percentage of (1), in financial years 2010–11 to 2014–15 inclusive; and what are their forecasts for the same expenditure and percentages for 2015–16.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Data on the expenditure on adult and children’s social care functions (1) in total, (2) on adult social care, and (3) on children’s social care, in financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15 inclusive; and their forecasts for the same expenditure for 2015-16 by local authorities are published online in the Revenue Outturn Social Care and Public Health Services (RO3), and the Revenue Account (RA) budget forecast which are available at the following link:

http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing

The most recent revenue forms and guidance notes are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-government-finance-miscellaneous-forms#revenue-forms

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many NHS trusts would not have been in financial balance in financial year 2014–15 without further in-year supplements to their approved budget for that year; and what percentage of all NHS trusts that represents.

Lord Prior of Brampton

National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts do not receive budgets directly from the Department. They receive income via the provision of services to NHS England and clinical commissioning groups, through what might be described as trading activity.

In addition to normal income sources, in 2014-15 the Department provided non-recurrent deficit support income directly to NHS trusts. Without this non-recurrent funding, 125 organisations would have been in financial deficit. This equates to 51% of all NHS trusts and foundation trusts.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to increase the percentage of GDP being spent on NHS and social care services.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Spending Review settlement, delivered by the Chancellor on 25 November 2015, set the Department’s overall budget for the remaining years of the Parliament and the level of funding that will be available to the National Health Service. It set absolute spending totals, not spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, providing certainty for financial planning over the period.

As a result of the Spending Review, NHS funding will be £10 billion higher in real terms by 2020-21 than 2014-15. And the NHS will not have to wait until the end of the Parliament for much of this investment. We will be giving the NHS £3.8 billion more next year, over and above inflation, and almost £6 billion of the £10 billion in the first two years of the six year period. This shows that the Government has listened and responded to what the NHS has said about the profile of investment it needs to deliver the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View.

In regards to social care, the Spending Review has shown our continued commitment to joining up health and care by confirming ongoing commitment to the Better Care Fund – making available further social care funds for local government from 2017, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019-20, which will be included in the Better Care Fund. As well as this, we are giving local government further access to the funding it needs by introducing a social care precept which could raise up to £2 billion by the end of the Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-06-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 June (HL351), what consideration they are giving to (1) the issuing of guidance on the establishment of children’s social care trusts so that lessons can be learned from earlier experiences of doing so; and (2) the regulatory implications for such bodies if more local authorities establish them given the regulatory arrangements in place for the outsourcing of adult social care.

Lord Nash

The evaluations of Doncaster and Slough Children’s Services Trusts are underway and will provide learning from the experiences of establishing those organisations. There are no new regulatory implications for trusts. Where a trust is created to carry out children’s social care services on behalf of an authority, the statutory responsibility for those services remains with that authority. Ofsted will continue to inspect children’s social care services whether they are delivered by a local authority or by a trust.