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** 25 March 2021
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** UK
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** Andrea Leadsom review proposes 'Start for Life' package for new parents (#1)
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** Lack of social care strategy left system weakened when COVID-19 struck - report (#2)
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** NHS Scotland staff to be offered at least 4% pay rise (#3)
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** International
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** US: Children exposed to tobacco smoke use more emergency health services - report (#5)
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** Spain: Jordi Cruyff joins advertising initiative to fight lung cancer on five-year anniversary of father Johan's death from disease (#6)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#7)
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** UK
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**
Government advisor and former leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom has urged the introduction of a ‘’Start for Life’’ package of services for prospective parents which brings together the support available in a local area to prevent families falling through the cracks.

Leadsom, who is chairing a review of the experience of families during the crucial first 1,001 days of their babies’ lives, would like all new parents to be offered a Start for Life pack listing what services they can access locally. She suggests that new family hubs that the government is creating should make many services, like breastfeeding and mental health support, available online, and wants to digitise the “red books” parents are given to record each child’s developmental milestones, by 2023.

She would like family hubs to focus particularly on the parents of the youngest children, allowing them to access midwives, health visitors, social workers, and other experts, and emphasised the need to support babies from more deprived backgrounds who tend to suffer worse health outcomes. Reports in the Daily Mail suggests that stop smoking services will be included in the new hubs.

Leadsom must convince the Treasury to set aside extra funding for the plans, which she will try to do during a year-long implementation phase. She has rejected claims that she is simply advocating the recreation of Labour’s Sure Start centres, saying that she would expect many local authorities to merge the remaining centres with the hubs she is suggesting.

Source: The Guardian, 25 March 2021
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** See also: Daily Mail - New parents will get support for mental health issues and breastfeeding under Boris Johnson's 'early years' plan to improve babies' lives ([link removed])
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** The public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has published a new report showing that the government’s failure to get a grip on England’s social care crisis left the care system weakened when the pandemic struck and thousands of people unable to access the help they need. The report highlighted pre-existing shortcomings in services as well as major gaps in the government’s understanding and oversight of the care system.

The NAO says when lockdown came, the lack of a long-term social care strategy meant the system was weakened by years of funding cuts to local authorities, repeated failure to fix workforce shortages, and a lack of central oversight and understanding of the sector’s problems. The report paints a picture of fragmented services unable to meet the rapidly growing need for care, exposed to constant financial uncertainty, leaving them unable to plan properly or invest in new facilities.

It warned that the social care “market” – around 76% of residential care is provided by commercial operators, many of which carry large debt burdens – was fragile, and with bed occupancy down as a result of the pandemic, may need ongoing financial support from the government. Failure to tackle social care funding gaps meant many adults with care needs no longer received assistance from local authorities.

“Too many” adults who needed assistance were reliant on unpaid help from family, neighbours and friends. This informal network of support, totalling around 7.3 million carers in England, may become increasingly strained as demand for care rises in future. Official estimates suggest that at current rates, 57% more over-65s and nearly a third more working-age adults will require care in 2038 compared with 2018, while the annual cost of providing that care is likely to roughly double, to around £57bn.

Source: The Guardian, 25 March 2021

See also: NAO report - The adult social care market in England ([link removed])
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** More than 154,000 NHS Scotland staff are to be offered a pay rise of at least 4% by the Scottish government. Staff at the lowest pay point will get a 5.4% increase under plans which benefit employees with contracts under the Agenda for Change system.

Agenda for Change is the national pay system for all NHS staff, with the exception of doctors, dentists, and most senior managers. Staff on pay bands 1 to 7 are due to receive at least a 4% pay rise compared with 2020/21, with workers earning less than £25,000 in 2020/21 guaranteed a minimum increase of more than £1,000 in 2021/22. Among those included in Agenda for Change are nurses, paramedics, and allied health professionals, as well as domestic, healthcare support staff, porters, and other frontline workers.

NHS workers in Scotland previously received a one-off £500 payment from the Scottish government as a thank you for their work during the coronavirus pandemic.
a year dominated by the COVID-19 crisis, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has appealed far beyond Westminster with a brand of calm authority.

Source: The Guardian, 24 March 2021
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** International
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** Research led by the University of Cincinnati has revealed that children who are exposed to tobacco utilise emergency and urgent care services more often than unexposed children. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, concluded that such children have higher paediatric emergency department visit costs, more urgent care visits over a one-year period, and nearly twice the risk of being admitted to hospital over a one-year period.

Source: Medical Xpress, 24 March 2021
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**

Jordi Cruyff, son of legendary Barcelona and Holland player Johan Cruyff, has announced that he has joined the Lung Ambition Alliance Spain initiative on the fifth anniversary of the death of his father, who was a heavy smoker, from lung cancer. The initiative has the ambition to doubling the five-year survival rate of lung cancer sufferers by 2025.

Cruyff posted a video on his social media channels which cuts between old footage of his father, originally filmed in an old anti-smoking advert, and himself. His father is seen doing keepy-uppies with a packet of cigarettes with the voiceover saying: 'I am Johan Cruyff. In life, I had two addictions, smoking and playing football. Football has given me everything in life, however smoking...' Jordi interjects: 'Took it all away.'

The Cruyff family aim to increase early detection and therefore bring down the chances of the disease being fatal.

Source: Daily Mail, 24 March 2021
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** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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**
PQ: Smoking

Asked by Mary Glindon, North Tyneside

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure adult smokers have access to (a) e-cigarettes and (b) other tools to help them quit smoking.

Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care

The Government continues to review the evidence of reduced risk products such as e-cigarettes, including their harms and usefulness as an aid to stop smoking. Although not risk free, current evidence suggests e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than smoking and can help some people quit.

Public Health England (PHE), through their stop smoking campaigns, provide information, advice and support on using e-cigarettes to help smokers quit. Smokers can also access local stop smoking services who provide a range of quitting methods to suit the individual smoker’s preferences and this may include support for smokers who wish to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking. The highest success rates in these services are seen among those combining expert advice with e-cigarettes.

In line with the Government’s commitment to article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the Department only meets with vape trade organisations who are independent of the tobacco industry. The Department and PHE meet with the Independent British Vape Trade Association to discuss industry concerns and wider regulatory matters, including misinformation.

Source: Hansard, 23 March 2021
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** PQ: Smoking

Asked by Mary Glindon, North Tyneside

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether local stop-smoking services encourage to adult smokers to switch from smoking conventional cigarettes to e-cigarettes.


Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care.

Local authorities are responsible for providing stop smoking services in their communities and are best placed to identify those in need of support and how to deliver an effective service. Public Health England provides analytical toolkits, assessments and guidance to help local authorities.
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** Source: Hansard, 23 March 2021
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** PQ: Smoking

Asked by Mary Glindon, North Tyneside

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government is on track to reach the smokefree 2030 target
.

Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care.

This Government is committed to levelling up in society to ensure no communities get left behind. This is why we announced our bold ambition for England to be Smokefree by 2030 because we want to continue to address the harms from smoking. As part of this commitment, we have announced the publication of a new Tobacco Control Plan which will set out our roadmap to achieving this challenging ambition. The Plan is due to be published in Summer 2021.

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** Source: Hansard, 23 March 2021
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.

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