Tag: Nicholas Soames

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the quality of adult social care provided by local authorities; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

The Government is committed to improving the quality of adult social care. We have taken a number of recent steps to do so.

In October 2014, we introduced a tougher inspection system by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Following inspections, the CQC now also awards each care service a single quality rating with providers rated as “Outstanding”, “Good”, “Requires Improvement” or “Inadequate”. Services rated “Inadequate” are being placed into Special Measure which means they could face closure if they fail to improve.

These new ratings and other information about the type and quality of care at every care home and homecare service in the country are now available on NHS Choices and the MyNHS Transparency website, making it much easier for people to compare the quality of services.

This year we introduced a Certificate of Fundamental Care, now known as the Care Certificate. This will help ensure that care workers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care.

The Department is funding and working with a number of organisations including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Skills for Care, the Social Care Institute for Excellence, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association on a range of projects to help adult social care organisations and staff improve the quality of care. These resources include new NICE Quality Standards and Guidelines which bring clarity to what excellence looks like in care and Commissioning for Better Outcomes – A Route Map* that sets out a series of commissioning standards that will be used as part of local government sector-led improvement to drive best practices in local authority commissioning under their new duties in the Care Act 2015.

*Available at:

http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/5756320/Commissioning+for+Better+Outcomes+A+route+map/8f18c36f-805c-4d5e-b1f5-d3755394cfab

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of delayed transfers in West Sussex; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

Action taken to address delayed transfers in West Sussex is a matter for the local health and social care community.

We understand that Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG are monitoring any delays on a daily basis, and working closely with colleagues in social care and community health teams. Coordinated actions between health and social care include dedicated meetings focusing on delayed transfers of care held each week; proactive management of patient flow via daily ward rounds; implementation of a daily “SITREP” and escalation process for patients who are significantly delayed; and ward sponsorship by local managers to support change.

Sussex Community NHS Trust is undertaking a detailed review of these issues, and has put an action plan in place to address them.

The CCGs are also working in partnership with West Sussex County Council to develop an integrated hospital discharge model, and have already established a Hospital Rapid Discharge Team at Princess Royal Hospital which is reducing the number of patients that go on to the wards by between 25% – 30%.

We are advised that these efforts have resulted in a steady reduction in average length of stay over recent months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department has received on reasons for absences of train drivers and cancellations of services operated by Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd.

Claire Perry

The Department receives regular reports from Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) regarding train operating performance. These reports include reasons for driver absences and train cancellations. Department officials routinely meet with GTR managers and senior directors to review all performance issues and cancellations due to driver resources.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in local authority social care budgets on the prevalence of delayed discharges in the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

The Department has not formally assessed the relationship between local authority social care budgets and the prevalence of delayed discharges in the National Health Service.

Internal analysis has been unable to demonstrate a statistical relationship between local authority budgets and delayed transfer of care performance, although qualitative evidence from the sector does indicate the importance of strong and effective social care services in supporting delivery of NHS services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on retuning systems it operates as a result of the release of 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz spectrum bands.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Ministry of Defence is currently forecasting a £47.1 million spend on remediation costs retuning systems from the 2.3GHz spectrum band. There are currently no known remediation costs associated with 3.4GHz.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department paid in spectrum charges in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Ministry of Defence paid the following amounts in radio spectrum fees:

2010-11 £63,382,464

2011-12 £154,878,400

2012-13 £154,878,400

2013-14 £154,878,400

2014-15 £154,878,400

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his estimate is of spectrum charges payable by his Department for each financial year from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Ministry of Defence estimates the following amounts in radio spectrum fees:

2015-16 £121,900,000

The radio spectrum fees for financial years 2016-17 to 2019-20 have yet to be agreed and are subject to negotiations with HM Treasury.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much (a) direct resource and (b) capital departmental expenditure limit funding his Department received from the Department for Health in relation to the (i) provision of improved psychiatric support to the armed forces and (ii) Midlands Medical Accommodation project in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Mark Lancaster

The Department of Health (DoH) has provided Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) funding in support of improved mental health care for the Armed Forces and Capital DEL funding for the Midlands Medical Accommodation (MMA) project. These funding arrangements between the DoH and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) commenced in Financial Year 2011-2012. DoH funding in each of the last four Financial Years was:

Financial Year	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million
Improved mental health care	1.01	1.01	1.79	0.71
MMA	19	26.67	25	10

DoH funding in support of improved mental health care has been spent in a number of areas including, but not limited to; the provision of mental health social workers; civilian and locum manpower and enhanced training, assessment and support tools.

The figures shown in the table exclude DoH funding spent on MOD research associated with mental health issues, as it has not been possible to separately identify this from other expenditure.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on redundancy schemes in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Mr Philip Dunne

The table below shows the annual costs for military and civilian Voluntary Early Release Scheme and redundancy payments for the last five financial years.

Financial Year	MOD Annual Report and Accounts Figures (£million)
2010-11	£189.22
2011-12	£293.79
2012-13	£180.82
2013-14	£218.72
2014-15	£141.68

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on liabilities arising from contract renegotiations in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Mr Philip Dunne

Ministry of Defence contracts are negotiated and amended as necessary during the course of normal business. In terms of which contracts were renegotiated and the liabilities paid, I am withholding the information as its disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.