Written questions by Whately.

If he will take steps to (a) recognise and (b) reward care workers who take on nursing responsibilities.

Care workers deserve to be recognised and supported for the vital work they do. We want social care to be regarded as a profession, and for the people who work in care to be respected as professionals. That is why, as part of our health mission, we will task regulators with assessing the role social care workers can play in supporting health treatment and monitoring.We are continuing to develop a national career structure for the adult social care workforce, which will recognise the work care workers undertake, including more advanced and complex care, for instance delegated healthcare interventions. We will also publish updated guiding principles on effective delegation of healthcare interventions to care workers, including the benefits for care workers, the registered nursing workforce, and people who access care.

What steps he is taking to help extend access to virtual wards to (a) avoid admission to hospital and (b) speed up discharge.

We are continuing to expand services to treat patients outside of hospitals when they have urgent needs, helping to prevent avoidable hospital admissions and speed up discharges. This includes using virtual wards which have benefited more than 240,000 people across the country so far. The expansion of these innovative services is allowing people to get the specialist care they need safely, and in the comfort of familiar surroundings.A new virtual wards operational framework by NHS England sets out the further action being taken to improve access to virtual wards. The framework is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/virtual-wards-operational-framework/

What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on improving the support for people who are signed off sick to help them return to work.

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Health and Social Care are committed to supporting disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, and have a range of support available so individuals can stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.Some measures include joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, as well as support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.We also support the role employers play in increasing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to be part of the workforce, including through increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers, and the Disability Confident scheme. This information service is available at the following link:https://www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/support-with-employee-health-and-disabilityAs part of our Get Britain Working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve.

What steps he is taking to help ensure ambulances are not delayed outside hospitals waiting to hand over patients.

The Government has committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance and achieve the standards set out in the NHS Constitution, including ambulance response times.As a first step, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care appointed Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of the NHS’ performance. The investigation’s findings were published on 12 September 2024 and will feed into the Government’s work on a 10-Year Health Plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.Ahead of this winter, NHS England has set out the priorities for the NHS to maintain and improve patient safety and experience, including actions to support patient flow and ensure ambulances are released in a timely way. NHS England’s winter letter is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/winter-and-h2-priorities/

If he will take steps to increase transparency to the public accessing of data on palliative care commissioned by local ICBs.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to end of life. Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications, which are respectively available at the following two links:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-statutory-guidance-for-integrated-care-boards-icbs/https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/service-specifications-for-palliative-and-end-of-life-care-children-and-young-people-cyp/There is data available from National Health Service bodies to support local quality monitoring, most notably local palliative and end-of-life care profiles, through the data service Fingertips, and other guidance, analyses, and bulletins issued by the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, within the Department. Further information on local palliative and end-of-life care profiles through the Fingertips data service is available at the following link:https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/end-of-life#page/4/gid/1938133060/pat/159/par/K02000001/ati/15/are/E92000001/iid/92489/age/162/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1/page-options/car-ao-1_car-do-0_tre-do-1Additionally, the Care Quality Commission publishes ratings for the quality of end-of-life care in hospitals and hospices, and has carried out national reviews. Where people die in acute, community, or mental health hospitals, the National Audit of Care at the End of Life monitors standards related to the quality of the end-of-life care provided.Furthermore, NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence. Access to the platform is available to anyone with an NHS.net email account.I recently met with NHS England and discussions have begun on how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care.  We will consider next steps on palliative and end of life care in the coming months.

What steps he is taking to help develop a career path for care workers.

We are committed to supporting a professional, well-supported social care workforce. On 6 September 2024, the Department launched the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme, which allows eligible employers to claim for funding for certain training courses and qualifications on behalf of eligible care staff. Over 150 courses and qualifications are eligible for funding from this scheme, including the new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification. We will continue to work with the adult social care sector and representative organisations to monitor the impact of the funding under the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme.Furthermore, we are working with care workers and employers to develop the next part of the Care Workforce Pathway, the new national career structure for adult social care, which we will publish in due course.