Tag: Norman Lamb

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library copies of internal communications, meeting notes and memoranda relating to the resignations of the National Guardian and interim deputy National Guardian for whistleblowers.

Ben Gummer

To obtain and collate copies of internal communications, meeting notes and memoranda relating to the resignations of the National Guardian and the interim deputy National Guardian for whistleblowers would incur disproportionate cost.

The National Guardian for whistleblowers, Dame Eileen Sills, left her post on 3 March 2016. She had concluded she did not have the capacity to undertake both the role of the National Guardian and that of Chief Nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

The Interim Deputy National Guardian, David Bell, who was seconded to the role, has returned to his substantive post. This was thought to be advisable as until a new appointment to the position of National Guardian is made, it is not clear what level of support will be required from a deputy, or indeed if one is required.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect of noise caused by the training of military aircraft pilots on local communities; and what steps his Department is taking to minimise such noise disturbance.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence takes its responsibilities to the general public very seriously indeed and would prefer not to cause any disturbance to the general public. Unfortunately, there are no uninhabited areas of the UK large enough to cater for essential training needs. Restrictions are placed on the height, speeds and operating procedures of military aircraft in the UK Military Low Flying System.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that disabled people receive the care they need to live independently.

Alistair Burt

The Department welcomes the report which was funded by the Department, NHS England and Public Health England, as part of the Health and Social Care Voluntary Sector Strategic Partnership Programme. The Department and its partners will use the findings of the report to review relevant policies to improve experiences and outcomes for people with disabilities.

The Care Act 2014 put personal budgets on a legal basis for the first time, including for disabled people and carers. This drives a focus on personalisation and increases opportunities for greater control and independence, so that people can choose care and support best suited to their needs.

The Care Act 2014 introduced a new national eligibility threshold which enables local authorities to maintain continuity of access to support for service users who move between local authorities. This threshold is set out in the Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015, and local authorities cannot tighten eligibility criteria beyond this threshold.

The Care Act 2014 contains a new duty for local authorities to provide independent advocacy to facilitate and support a person’s involvement in the care and support assessment, planning and review processes. Local authorities must also establish and maintain a service that provides information and advice relating to care and support for adults and support for carers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to commence the provisions on the imposition of financial penalties on respondent employers who fail to pay an employment tribunal award in section 150 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.

Nick Boles

We expect to commence the financial penalty provision in section 150 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 from April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve access to mental health services for care leavers aged 18 to 25 years old.

Alistair Burt

The Government is committed to making the full £1.4 billion investment available over the course of this Parliament to improve mental health services for children and young people.

In line with guidance published by NHS England, all clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have produced Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health and these have all now been assured and funding allocated for implementation. These plans required all key partners to agree locally how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations and should cover the whole spectrum of need, which includes improving access to mental health services for vulnerable groups such as children in care and care leavers so that they can receive high quality mental health care when they need it. It is for local partners to decide how much of the funding which will be allocated to CCGs to improve local services throughout the five years will be spent specifically on children in care and other vulnerable groups. However, this will be based on an assessment of local needs and set out in the LTPs.

The Government’s overall strategy to improve outcomes for care leavers is set out in the Care Leaver Strategy: A cross-departmental strategy for young people leaving care report (October 2013), and a one-year-on document, Care Leaver Strategy: One year on progress update, (October 2014) that reported on progress made and set out how the Government intends to further improve support for care leavers. The Government intends to publish its refreshed Care Leaver Strategy later this year.

The Local Government Association has produced a spreadsheet giving details of every LTP can be found using the following webpage address:

www.local.gov.uk/camhs

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25396, if she will publish data from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) on the performance of police forces against the service level agreement standards for the time taken to complete local DBS checks over the last six months.

Karen Bradley

The operational performance plans of police disclosure units are matters for Chief Constables in association with Police and Crime Commissioners.

The DBS regularly publishes detailed datasets showing statistics against internal performance standards which form the basis of its monthly reports to the Home Office. This includes performance against their target to issue 95% of all disclosures within 56 days and the number of disclosure applications in progress each month. This can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-1-disclosure-progress-information-disclosed-and-update-service-subscriptions.

DBS also publishes datasets showing statistics against service level agreements with police forces. These apply to the performance of police disclosure units and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-5-police-disclosure-unit-performance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-15.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has put measures in place to ensure that funding raised through the two per cent precept levied by local government will be spent on adult social care.

Greg Hands

Council treasurers will need to certify that the additional revenue will be used to fund adult social care. The Secretary of State will review the arrangements each year as part of the process for setting referendum principles. These are approved by the House of Commons each year and will take into account the way councils have used the additional flexibility when doing so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many Disabled Facilities Grants were not progressed as a result of families not being able to afford adaptations in cases in which the cost of adaptation exceeded the grant amount in 2014 and 2015; and if he will estimate the number of such grants that will not be progressed in 2016 for that reason.

Brandon Lewis

The Department for Communities and Local Government does not collect data on the number of Disabled Facilities Grants which are not progressed where the cost of the adaptations exceed the grant limit of £30,000 per applicant. Local authorities can provide additional top-up funding which can be used to fund adaptations where the cost exceeds the grant limit per applicant.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider the introduction of a programme to reduce or write off student loans for top graduates entering teaching or social work in areas (a) of high social need and (b) struggling to recruit to such professions.

Nick Gibb

Recruiting sufficient, high-quality teachers is central to the Government’s ambition to deliver educational excellence everywhere. High-quality teachers are the single most important factor determining how well pupils achieve in schools. That is why we have already committed to spend over £1.3 billion on teacher recruitment up to 2020. This includes continuing to provide generous tax-free teacher training bursaries to graduates, which are worth up to £30,000 for academic year 2016/17.

More trainee teachers started training in 2015/16 than in 2014/15, and a record proportion of new trainees held a first class degree. For courses beginning in 2016/17, so far around 26,000 people have secured a teacher training place, and we have already recruited in excess of targets in primary and several secondary subjects.

We review the financial incentives for teacher training every year, and we will continue to test new approaches to recruiting teachers, such as the STEM teacher supply package announced in March 2015.

Recruiting and retaining high quality social workers is essential to ensure we deliver high quality services to vulnerable children and families. As already announced, the Government will consult on the future funding of social work education in order to ensure that there will be an adequate supply of social workers with the right skills and training. This is part of a wider, ongoing programme which has seen investment of over £700m since 2010 in social worker training and improvement programmes, including support for a range of routes to expand entry into the profession such as Frontline, a scheme specifically aimed at bringing top graduates into social work, and Step Up.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure parity between the regulation of nurses and midwives and other regulated health professions.

Ben Gummer

The Law Commissions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have completed a review of the regulation of all health and (in England) social care professionals including nurses and midwives and published their report on 2 April 2014. One of the key recommendations made by the Law Commissions was to introduce much greater consistency between the professional regulators as well as simplifying the legislation.

The joint four UK country response to the Law Commissions was published on 29 January 2015 which accepted wholly or in part the vast majority of its recommendations.

The Department is currently reviewing how best to take forward the work of the Law Commissions. We hope to be able to provide an update on this work soon.