Tag: Lord Warner

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the real-term expenditure on local authority-brokered social care in each of the last five years for which information is available.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Based on existing data, the last five years of adult social care spend (including transfers from the National Health Service) in real terms (2014-15 prices) are as follows:

2010-11 £17.19 billion

2011-12 £16.35 billion

2012-13 £15.89 billion

2013-14 £15.72 billion

2014-15 £15.51 billion

This information is based upon Department for Communities and Local Government budget data.

The real terms figures (2014-15 prices) for gross spend on children and young people’s services (including capital expenditure from revenue), calculated from the Department for Education section 251 data returns, are:

2010-11 £9.92 billion

2011-12 £9.12 billion

2012-13 £9.20 billion

2013-14 £9.12 billion

2014-15 data will be available later in this financial year.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3563), what provision was made in the 2015 Spending Review in the Department for Communities and Local Government allocation for local authorities in 2016–17, and in each subsequent year, for the introduction of the National Living Wage.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

Spending Review decisions took the National Living Wage into account along with a range of other financial and economic factors. I refer the noble Lord to the provisional local government finance settlement, published on 17 December, which builds on the Spending Review outcome and also took account of pressures on adult social care. Policies to provide funding for social care include:

• The social care precept in council tax, which puts money raising powers into the hands of local areas who understand the need in their area and who are best placed to respond. This could raise up to £2 billion a year for social care by 2019/20;

• Making an extra £1.5 billion available for social care by 2019-20 in an improved Better Care Fund – with funding going direct to councils to ensure health and social care services work together to support older and vulnerable people;

• More than doubling the Disabled Facilities Grant to over £500 million a year by 2019/20.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken better to enforce compliance with the Schools Admissions Code among religiously selective schools, in the light of the findings of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and British Humanist Association, An Unholy Mess.

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 further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 25 February (HL5719), whether an NGO can assist individual parents, or groups of parents, to challenge the fairness of the admission arrangements in their local school or schools through the adjudication process, including legally challenging the fairness of the adjudication process itself.

Lord Nash

There is nothing in school admissions legislation which would prevent a parent or group of parents from seeking the assistance of a non-government organisation in referring an objection to the Schools Adjudicator or in bringing a legal challenge about the adjudication process. Similarly, there is nothing in admissions legislation to prevent an organisation from providing such assistance.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what information they hold on the occupancy levels of registered care homes in the last five years for which information is available.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The information requested is not collected centrally.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3562), in the absence of centrally collected data on the occupancy levels of registered care homes, on what data the Care Quality Commission relies to discharge its oversight function for the publicly-funded nursing and residential care sectors.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The purpose of market oversight, amongst other things, is to protect people who may be placed in vulnerable circumstances due to the failure of a ‘difficult to replace’ adult social care provider. It does this by monitoring in arrears the quarterly financial returns of those providers captured by the scheme. Since inclusion in the scheme is a reflection of provider size, by definition it is the larger providers that are captured by the scheme and as such market oversight is concerned with the overall consolidated financial performance. Consequently, it would not ordinarily consider occupancy levels for individual registered care homes.

The types of information the Care Quality Commission collects from registered care providers as part of its Market Oversight Scheme is included in published guidance – Market Oversight of ‘difficult to replace’ providers of adult social care. The guidance is attached.

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 An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign last year, that a significant number of religiously selective schools are employing religious selection criteria that was not permitted by their relevant religious authority, contrary to the School Admissions Code.

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 what estimate they have made of (1) how many health professionals will return to permanent NHS jobs as a result of price caps on agency staff spending, and (2) how many nurses will leave nursing as a result of those caps.

Lord Prior of Brampton

No formal assessment has been made by the Department to estimate the specific numbers of health professionals that will return to permanent National Health Service jobs as a result of the introduction of price caps on agency staff spending, or on the number of nurses that may leave nursing as a result.

Trust boards have primary responsibility for monitoring the local impact of the price caps and ensuring patient safety.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimates they have made of the impact of the National Living Wage on registered care providers, both domiciliary and residential, in the first year of the National Living Wage’s introduction; and whether they will classify the National Living Wage as a new burden on local authorities for which they should receive grant increases to pay care providers.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department has engaged with the social care sector, including care providers, to understand how the introduction of the National Living Wage will affect them. The overall costs to local authorities of providing social care are being considered as part of the Spending Review.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 23 November (HL3565), what advice they will give to local authorities affected by significant withdrawal of residential care providers in particular areas from publicly-funded adult social care in the event that this prevents those authorities from stepping in to ensure people’s needs.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government has worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Information Unit to publish guidance to support local authorities to develop effective contingency plans for provider failure- Care and Continuity: Contingency planning for provider failure. The guidance is attached.

It is expected that local authorities will keep these plans under review and update them as necessary to reflect current market conditions and risks.

Should there be a significant withdrawal of residential care providers from the publically funded adult social care market putting pressure on local authorities’ capacity to discharge their statutory functions in the short-term, the Government will work with the sector to develop bespoke contingency plans to support local government to manage the situation. This could include supporting work with neighbouring local authorities and ADASS regional networks.

More widely, the Government will continue to support local authorities to discharge their functions under the Care Act 2014 which require them to shape a sustainable market that meets the needs of their local population.