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Health Inequalities

Thank you, Mr. Illsley, for giving me the opportunity to participate in this important Adjournment debate. There is no doubt that social care funding has had great difficulty in keeping pace with demand. The pressure on social care services from rising demand is well rehearsed and reflects the experience of Doncaster and Barnsley, which are my home authorities. People are living longer with improvements in health care from birth to old age, so more people have complex dependency needs. They have greater expectations for more and higher quality services. The situation has been compounded by recent developments in the NHS—for example, long-stay hospital closures. Treating more people more quickly with earlier discharge requires more intensive care in the community and places an extra burden on social care services. Within social services, better assessment and early intervention rather than reducing long-term costs is creating pressure to offer more in the way of early, targeted support. More investment is needed for the shift from spending on intensive care services to prevention and individualised support. The Government face a difficult scenario, but it is compounded by the inequalities in the health funding system, as all hon. Members who have spoken have said. This debate is not just about health funding inequalities; more importantly, it is about health inequalities in general. You will be familiar with the health profile of my constituency, Mr. Illsley, where more than one in three households has at least one disabled person. It has the highest number of individual claims—more than 12,500—for chronic bronchitis and emphysema from former miners. Former miners in my constituency have received more than £100 million from the Labour Government. They would not have received that if we had had a Conservative Government, and those claims are a legacy of the mining industry. The latest figures I have for mortality rates for cancer are for 2005-06 and are based on 100,000 people of all ages. The average rate in England is 177; in Barnsley it is 204.35 and in Doncaster it is 207.68. Turning to the mortality rate for chronic heart disease, the average rate in England is 101.8; in Doncaster it is 115.8 and in Barnsley it is 145.02. That is 40 per cent. higher than the national average, and provides a snapshot of the sort of picture that we face in Barnsley and Doncaster. Yet overall Government funding bears little relationship to assessed needs, with current grant differing from some 130 per cent. over target to some 23 per cent. below target. Doncaster is 6.8 per cent. below target and Barnsley is 9.3 per cent. below target. Around 95 local authorities nationally are below target funding by some £686 million. Of those, 37 are part of the special interest group of municipal authorities outside London—SIGOMA—and are losing £239 million this year. Both Barnsley and Doncaster are members of SIGOMA. I have a confession to make. I was one of the three founding fathers of SIGOMA when I was leader of Barnsley council. The other two gentlemen in the frame were Councillor Peter Smith from Wigan and Councillor George Gill from Gateshead. That was one of my greatest achievements as leader of the council. [Hon. Members: ““One of many.””] Yes, one of the many achievements. It is important that the Government revisit the issue, so that resources can be more effectively targeted at areas of greatest need. The efficiency of local authorities has been widely acknowledged in recent weeks, and the Local Government Association lobbying of Ministers to switch 0.5 per cent. of the NHS's expected budget of £100 billion—that is £500 million—to social care should be widely welcomed and supported, because there is evidence that such a switch would deliver better value for money. In conclusion, the issue is one of fairness and equity, and I would like the Minister to answer this specific question when she responds. How can it be right that Barnsley, where the death rate from chronic heart disease is 45 per cent. higher than the average, is underfunded to the tune of 9.5 per cent. below target? The Barnsleys and Doncasters of this world do not want more than other areas. We would be more than happy with our fair share.