Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average proportion of GP’s working time spent outside of the surgery is.

Alistair Burt

The information is not held centrally. As general practitioners (GPs) are independent contractors, it is for each practice to determine how they run their practice in order to meet the reasonable needs of their patients.

The Department commissions a GP Worklife Survey and this is carried out by the Manchester Centre for Health Economics at the University of Manchester on behalf of the Policy Research Unit in Commissioning and the Healthcare System (PRUComm).

In 2015, respondents were asked to indicate how much of their time was spent on external meetings, for example, meetings of the clinical commissioning group. Responses show that GPs spend 8.4% of their time on administration, 3.5% on external meetings and 6.3% on other activities.

The full report can be found at:

http://www.population-health.manchester.ac.uk/healtheconomics/research/Reports/EighthNationalGPWorklifeSurveyreport/EighthNationalGPWorklifeSurveyreport.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the life expectancy is of residents of the (a) Southampton City, (b) NHS West London, (c) NHS North Manchester and (d) West Hampshire clinical commissioning group areas.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of local sustainability and transformation plans on geographical variations in stroke care.

George Freeman

Health economies have come together to develop Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) for their footprints until 2020/21. As with the current arrangements for planning and delivery, there are layers of plans which can sit below STPs, with shared links and dependencies. STPs do not replace the existing system architecture or provide details on all individual clinical areas. Rather STPs act as an umbrella, holding underneath them a number of different specific plans to address key local issues. As such, for conditions such as Stroke, it is not expected that STPs will provide great levels of detail regarding all the Stroke related activity occurring across the Footprint.

Visibility will be provided through other mechanisms such as audits. Stroke data is collected by the national audit from all trusts and reported at both trust and clinical commissioning group (CCG) level. The Royal College of Physicians which runs the audit has not done an analysis to compare services between rural and urban CCGs. However the data is available in the public domain for researchers should they wish to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families have been assisted by the Troubled Families programme in Southampton.

Mr Marcus Jones

In Southampton, the local authority achieved significant outcomes with 685 families under the first Troubled Families Programme (2012 – 2015).

In the new Troubled Families Programme (2015 – 2020), they have so far engaged 1,065 families. This means that each of these families has a named key worker or lead worker, a full assessment of the problems they face and an agreed plan with stretching goals to tackle all of these problems.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve (a) productivity across the Civil Service and (b) efficient use of office space.

Matthew Hancock

Improving the efficiency and productivity of the public sector is central to the work of the Cabinet Office. By 2014/15 the Government had saved £18.6 billion through efficiency and reform, and tackling fraud, error and uncollected debt (against a 2009/10 baseline).

The Government Hubs programme will reduce the government office estate from around 800 buildings to around 200 by 2023 and generate savings of over £2bn over ten years.

This is being supported by a smart working revolution to transform how and where civil servants work. In line with what many private sector organisations have achieved, we expect this to increase productivity, reduce costs, improve wellbeing, and contribute to wider objectives such as localism, sustainability, and reducing pressure on the transport system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that (a) training and (b) emotional support is given to carers who work in residential homes.

Alistair Burt

Improving the capability of the care workforce through continued skills development is a vital investment in the future. This applies to the workforce as a whole but is particularly important for those working in residential homes.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of employers to ensure their staff are suitably trained and appropriately supported to undertake the roles for which they are employed.

The Department is working closely with our delivery partners to support employers in improving the level of skills of the workforce and is spending significant levels of funding to support this work.

The introduction of the Care Certificate is delivering specific standards for the training of new care workers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the UK meets its renewed target of zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government believes we will need to take the step of enshrining the global goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of the century, agreed in Paris, into UK law. The question is not whether but how we do it.

The Government also remains committed to its existing Climate Change Act target of an at least 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 on 1990 levels. Our working assumption is that we will publish our Emissions Reduction Plan by the end of 2016, which will set out our proposals for meeting our Climate Change Act targets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the role of the local authority in terms of (a) child protection, (b) safeguarding and (c) other duties for schools which become academies; and who will finance those roles.

Edward Timpson

Local authorities’ responsibilities in relation to child protection and safeguarding are unaffected by schools becoming academies, as they are not dependent on the type of school which a child attends. Details of the role we expect local authorities to play are set out in the statutory guidance “Working together to safeguard children 2015”[1]. Ofsted also inspects local authorities’ children’s social care services against the rigorous ‘Single Inspection Framework’, which includes a review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.

The White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere,[2] sets out the education functions which we expect local authorities to provide when schools have become academies. These are focussed on supporting the interests of pupils and parents rather than services related to maintaining schools.

Local authority funding for children’s social care is administered by the Department for Communities and Local Government. As part of our ongoing National Funding Formula consultation[3], we are proposing to create a new central schools block, which will fund a range of education services that local authorities carry out for all pupils and parents, regardless of whether they are in a maintained school or an academy.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508447/Educational_Excellence_Everywhere.pdf

[3] https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 30272, what account he has made of the effect on economic growth of the recent reduction in fuel duty.

Damian Hinds

The Government took into account a wide number of factors when considering the impact of freezing fuel duty at Budget 2016, including the impact on growth. HMRC/HM Treasury analysis published in 2014 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/analysis-of-the-dynamic-effects-of-fuel-duty-reductions

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on whether academies will be able to employ unqualified teachers when all schools become academies.

Edward Timpson

Since August 2012, the funding agreements for all new academies has given the academy trust the freedom to employ anyone it believes is suitably qualified or is otherwise eligible to plan and prepare lessons and courses for pupils, teach pupils, and assess and report on pupils’ development, progress and attainment. Academies set up prior to this date can apply to the Education Funding Agency to have their funding agreement amended.

As set out in our White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, we will replace Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) with a stronger, more challenging accreditation based on a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as judged by great schools. This new accreditation will raise the quality and status of the teaching profession, better recognising advanced subject knowledge and pedagogy that is rooted in up-to-date evidence, ensuring the highest quality of teaching is paramount to the success of each school. Headteachers know this, which is why we trust them to employ staff that they believe to be best qualified for the job – including whether to make this accreditation a mandatory requirement or not, considering how to weigh it against other qualifications and experience the potential teacher may bring.