| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
12 May 2008 : Column 1350W—continued
Non-Profit Making Associations: Finance
Margaret Moran: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much social enterprise funding is being provided to voluntary sector bodies in 2008-09. [203688]
Phil Hope: Government social enterprise policy is set out in the social enterprise action plan, which was launched in November 2006. Social enterprises come from a variety of backgrounds and a proportion of them will start as voluntary sector organisation looking to become more enterprising and diversify their income stream.
A number of funds focus specifically on supporting social enterprise and enterprising third sector organisations. The Cabinet Office has two such programmes:
Futurebuilders offers support and investment to third sector organisations to deliver public services. Cabinet Office committed a further £65 million to this fund over the 2008-11 CSR period, brining the total fund up to £215 million.
A Risk Capital Fund which will, over the life of the fund, provide up to £10 million government money for co-investment in social enterprise, matched by up to £10 million from the private sector.
In addition the Department of Health is investing £100 million over the next four years to create and support a vibrant social enterprise sector in health and social care.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Music: Internet
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps the Government is taking to protect the music industry from illegal downloading. [204464]
Malcolm Wicks:
The Government take the illicit use of peer-to-peer technology to download music and other copyright material very seriously. We accept it is difficult for the music industry to develop exciting and viable new business models in the face of such unlawful activity. That is why we are actively encouraging rights holders and internet service providers to agree a way forward—it is in both their longer term interests, and a voluntary arrangement that was effective and fair would be the best solution. However, the Government
have also made it clear that in the absence of such an industry solution we will consult on regulatory options with a view to introducing legislation.
Working Hours: Tribunals
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many claims about (a) working hours and (b) flexible working by employees in the (i) public sector and (ii) private sector were accepted for hearings by employment tribunals in each year since 1997; and in how many such cases the tribunals found in favour of the claimant. [201908]
Mr. Wills: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is in the following tables:
| Table 1: Working hours and flexible working hours data | ||||
| Jurisdiction accepted( 1) | Disposals( 2, 3) | Cases disposed of at hearing | Number of successful at hearing | |
| (1) Table 1 shows the number of claims under the Working Time Directive and includes cases where working time directive is not the main jurisdiction. A claim may be bought under more than one jurisdiction or subsequently amended or clarified in the course of proceedings. Table 1 does not include claims brought under Flexible Working Hours (these are detailed in Table 2). (2) This includes cases where there was an ACAS conciliated settlement, withdrawn cases, default judgments and cases disposed of otherwise. (3) The disposal figures for 1999-2000 include cases where working time directive was the main jurisdiction cited. (4) Data not held. (5) The increase in 2003-04 is due to a large multiple case heard at Watford. Notes: 1. Taken from Annual Reports 1999-2000 to 2006-07. 2. The information above includes both public and private sector as the information is not available separately. | ||||
| Table 2: Flexible Working Hours | |
| Receipts( 1, 2) | |
| (1) Receipts are all applications registered by the employment tribunals where Flexible Working Hours was one of the jurisdictions or main jurisdiction cited. (2) In the annual report Flexible Working cases are reported on in the 'Other' category and cannot be separated out, therefore only the receipts can be provided, the receipt figures come from the management board statistics produced for ETS and a breakdown of jurisdictional receipts incl. flexible working hours cases were only reported on from September 2004. In the annual reports flexible working hours cases would be included in the 'Others' description so a breakdown cannot be provided from the published statistics. Notes: 1. Figures taken from Management Statistics produced for ETS. 2. Table 2 shows the number of claims brought under Flexible Working Hours. 3. Figures are not available for the financial years 1997-08 to 2003-04 | |
Health
Alzheimer’s Disease
Greg Mulholland:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he discussed policy to tackle Alzheimer’s disease and the French Plan on Alzheimer at his recent
meeting with the French Minister of Health; and if he will make a statement. [204862]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State had discussions with the French Minister of Health on 14 April 2008 on a range of issues, including on measures to tackle dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Dementia is now a priority for the Government, and in August 2007 we announced the development of a new National Dementia Strategy and Implementation Plan. The strategy will focus on three key themes: improving awareness; early diagnosis and intervention; and improving the quality of care. Work on the strategy is already under way and draft recommendations are due to go out for public consultation in June 2008.
Care Homes: Fees and Charges
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average residential care home fee in each local authority area for (a) local authority-funded residents and (b) privately-funded residents was in each year since 1996. [204613]
Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 9 May 2008]: The information requested is not held centrally.
Care Homes: Standards
Mr. Mullin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that older people in care homes receive a minimum standard of care; and if he will make a statement. [204592]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Government established the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) under the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 as a single inspectorate to bring together all strands of inspection, monitoring and the regulation of social care services, including care and nursing homes for older people.
We introduced national minimum standards (NMS) for care homes, domiciliary care and adult placements. The NMS are intended to ensure vulnerable and older people can live in a safe environment, where their rights and dignity are respected and staff are properly trained. All care homes in England are regulated—registered and inspected—by CSCI in accordance with statutory regulations and the NMS. CSCI has a wide range of enforcement powers and will take action to protect the welfare of residents, with the aim of raising the quality of care and level of protection for vulnerable people and ensuring that service users and their families can be confident that their welfare and interests are safeguarded.
We introduced the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Scheme in July 2004. This scheme, which operates as a work force ban, prevents dangerous or unscrupulous people from gaining access to older and vulnerable people in care homes or being cared for in their own homes.
On the recommendation of the Bichard inquiry, we are introducing a new centralised vetting and barring scheme for people working with children and vulnerable people. This scheme, as set out in the Safeguarding
Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, will extend the coverage of the existing barring scheme and draw on wider sources of information to provide a more comprehensive and consistent measure of protection for vulnerable groups across a wide range of settings, including the whole of social care and the national health service. The new scheme will make it far more difficult for abusers to gain access to some of the most vulnerable groups in society.
In November 2006, the Department launched the first ever national Dignity In Care campaign. Our intention is to create a care system where there is zero tolerance of abuse and disrespect of older people and a situation where people are as outraged by the abuse of parents and grandparents as they are at the abuse of children.
Subject to the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, all health and adult social care providers that come within the scope of registration will be required to register with the new regulator of health and social care services, the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We expect CQC to begin its work in April 2009, when it will take over the duties of CSCI, the Healthcare Commission and the Mental Health Act Commission.
CQC will provide assurance of essential levels of safety and quality of care to people using health and adult social care services in England. Our aim is to ensure that the registration system will apply equally to all health and adult social care providers, whether from the NHS, local authority or independent sectors. For the first time, there will be a single coherent, enforceable set of requirements for all providers of these services. In order to be granted registration, care providers will need to demonstrate that they can meet, or are already meeting the registration requirements. To maintain registration, they will be required to demonstrate an ongoing ability to meet those requirements.
Continuing Care
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which local authorities were providing long-term care services to people with (a) low needs, (b) moderate needs, (c) substantial needs and (d) critical needs in each year since the Fair Access to Care Services criteria were introduced. [205089]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The data are not held centrally.
Home Care Services
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people received local authority-funded, long-term care services in their own homes in each local authority area in each year since the Fair Access to Care Services criteria were introduced. [205088]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: A table showing the estimated number of clients receiving home care funded fully or partially by the local authority during the period 1 April to 31 March for each year since 2003-04, has been placed in the Library.
Some of the services may not necessarily be for long-term home care and there are no data held centrally to show the length of time the service has been in place.
Learning Disability: Day Centres
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many day centres serving people with learning disabilities and their families have closed since March 2001; and what alternative services were provided in each case. [204610]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information is not held centrally.
It is for local authorities to decide on the closure of a day centre and to determine what services they provide to best meet the needs of their local populations. This includes services for people with learning disabilities.
In our consultation on “Valuing People Now”, we said that we recognise that, for many families, day centres have provided essential respite from the day to day demands of caring. The services that replace them must result in improvements for both users and their families. Copies of the consultation document are available in the Library.
The consultation to “Valuing People Now” has now closed and we will be responding with our full strategy in the early autumn.
Learning Disability: Health Services
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what consideration his Department has given to increasing the number of (a) health facilitators and (b) learning disability liaison nurses in the NHS; and if he will make a statement; [204675]
(2) which NHS trusts have a disability equality scheme in place; and how many such schemes include provision to meet the needs of patients with learning disabilities; [204682]
(3) how many people with a learning disability had a health action plan in place at the latest date for which figures are available; [204683]
(4) how many (a) learning disability liaison nurses and (b) health facilitators there are in the national health service; and how many of each are on (i) permanent and (ii) fixed-term contracts; [204689]
(5) what plans he has to reduce the health inequalities experienced by people with a learning disability; and if he will make a statement. [204690]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: We will be looking at these and other roles on primary care and specialist services as part of our consideration of the consultation responses to “Valuing People Now”. The deadline for responses to this consultation was 28 March 2008 and the responses are currently being analysed. We will publish a revised strategy which takes account of the consultation responses in the early autumn.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |