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Dementia Sufferers

There was an era not that long ago when nothing plus nothing came to nothing, and those of us in the House who remember it know the dreadful state in which public services were left as a consequence. Frankly, it is a little disingenuous of the hon. Gentleman to make that point, when there have been record levels of investment in all public services year on year in the past 10 years, but I will address the serious issue. If we are going to transform services for older people and disabled people in our society, we need a far more integrated approach between the NHS locally and local government at a local level, and between the voluntary and private sectors. We certainly need to look at the balance of resources between the NHS and services that are commissioned—not necessarily provided—by local government. I do not think that there is any difference between us in terms of direction of travel. The White Paper, ““Our health, our care, our say””, committed us to considering, where appropriate, a redirection of resources from the NHS to local government in terms of the provision of certain services. I shall tease the hon. Gentleman by saying, ““Watch this space.””