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Debate on the Address

My Lords, in government it must often seem that you cannot win: if you give advance notice of your legislative programme in the interests of greater transparency, when it comes to the Queen's Speech you are told that it contains nothing new. The gracious Speech is said to be long on aspiration but short on vision. It is our job to hold the Government to account, but in an age when the business of politics is increasingly debased by partisan agendas, the 24/7 news culture and the corrosive canker of cynicism, it seems to me that we ought to be prepared to give credit where credit is due. A programme designed to meet people's aspirations—for better education, housing, healthcare and children's services, with a commitment to raising educational standards along with the school leaving age and addressing the important skills agenda of the Leitch report; which envisages the building of 3 million new homes in the next 10 years, the largest house-building programme since the 1950s, which is long overdue; a healthcare system organised around the needs of the patient; all children having the best possible start in life and improved services for vulnerable children and young people, including those in care; a better balance between work and family life; which is committed to tackling climate change in a manner which suggests that it means business; and to tackling congestion and improving public transport; not to mention the even larger agenda of reducing global poverty with renewed efforts to achieve the millennium development goals—such a programme hardly fails on the score of vision. It is on the score of delivery that it seems to me that Governments—all Governments—are vulnerable, and increasingly vulnerable, in a society beset by a crisis of authority, where the imperative of consultation means that all decisions are contested and where the traditional levers of influence flop limp in Ministers' hands. I was intrigued by the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, saying in yesterday's debate that the problem lay mainly in the external arena and that domestically delivery could normally be guaranteed—would that it were so! Nowhere is the gap between rhetoric—no, let us be fair—intention and performance more stark than in the arena of social care, which is truly the Cinderella among the subjects we are debating today. Expenditure on personal social services has increased substantially in recent years, by 10 per cent in real terms between 2003-04 and 2005-06. That is something for which the Government deserve real credit, but it is still not enough, and growth in spending on social care is being dwarfed by the growing needs of our ageing population. Despite the Government's best efforts, provision is falling further and further behind need, and the system is slipping deeper and deeper into crisis. In March 2006, the Local Government Association reported that seven out of 10 people receive social care only if their needs are substantial or critical, and 80 per cent of councils plan to tighten their criteria still further. That has forced many disabled and elderly people back on to their own resources, leaving some to rely on family or friends for essentials and others simply to go without. The Government's answer in the Health and Social Care Bill is stronger regulation. That may help to drive up standards, but it is also a question of resources. The above-inflation increase for the Department of Health in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review should not be allowed to conceal the fact that, with growth in the funding for local authorities standing at just 1 per cent above inflation over the next three years, much of which is already accounted for, social care services are promised relatively little. If the Government can be asked to reconsider the adequacy of their spending on defence, should they not also reconsider whether their spending on the needs of the most vulnerable in our society is adequate and whether fair access to care services can continue to be sustainable at this level of funding? We must never lose sight of the basic purpose of social care: to enable people to live independently. That is why I have been so dismayed by the bureaucracy of the ordinary residence rules, which stop people moving around the country to new jobs, educational and other life opportunities. I hope that some progress can be made on these issues during this Session. I hope, too, that the Government will be prepared to give a fair wind to the Bill introduced yesterday by the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, to develop a range of services that would enable disabled people to have true independence; either that or bring forward some proposals of their own, perhaps based on the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, which is currently being considered. That was the object of the Cabinet Office's Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People report, though I would urge the Government not to be beguiled by prescriptions which are too monolithic. There are those who feel, for example, that individualised budgets do not suit everyone, and that the report takes insufficient account of the needs of elderly people—the majority of disabled people—and those with severe, multiple, complex and learning difficulties. The purpose of the Employment Simplification Bill is to, "““simplify, clarify and build a stronger enforcement regime for key aspects of employment law””." One aspect that I am particularly interested in clarifying and strengthening relates to retaining newly disabled people in work. As part of the Government's welfare to work reforms, I believe that much greater priority must be given to supporting disabled people in work who are at risk of leaving their employment for a reason related to their disability. Catching those people who are likely to leave work for disability-related reasons will, without doubt, bring greater savings for the Government than engaging with the same people once they have left work and claimed incapacity benefit. The Government gave a specific commitment in the Warwick agreement to introduce in this Parliament greater support for people who become disabled while in work. As set out in the National Policy Forum report Britain is Working of September 2004, the commitment is to, "““taking action to ensure that employers fulfil the requirement already on them to make reasonable adjustments for disabled workers including where appropriate granting leave in respect of their disability””." This policy has gained considerable support in another place as rehabilitation leave. It has been promoted for more than a decade by my organisation, RNIB, but it should now be seen as an idea whose time has come. People who become disabled while in work, or who experience a change in an existing impairment or health condition, would be able to have some time away from work to undertake rehabilitation and retraining to return to their previous role, or if that is not possible, an alternative appropriate position, and so avoid going onto incapacity-for-work benefits. I cannot conclude without commenting on the omission from the gracious Speech of a single equality Bill. The Government published a Green Paper in the summer that was intended to prefigure a single equality Bill, but it was the subject of considerable criticism, particularly for the impact the proposals would have had on the disability equality duty. Many felt that the Green Paper lacked, among many other things, vision and failed adequately to address the role of the private sector in promoting equality. It is therefore gratifying to learn that the proposals are being reconsidered. However, the Secretary of State's announcement that there will be a Bill in next year's Queen's Speech, but with very limited further consultation or scrutiny, has caused widespread concern. On 25 October she said in another place that, "““it might not be possible to publish the whole Bill in draft, but we would seek to publish some draft clauses””.—[Official Report, Commons, 25/10/07; col. 425.]" This is not really good enough. On a matter as complex and technical as this, there needs to be further consultation and there is a strong case for a draft Bill to be published in order that pre-legislative scrutiny may take place. Your Lordships will remember that such an approach was adopted for the draft Disability Discrimination Bill, which led to the 2005 Act, and that this was widely welcomed and generally considered to have had a beneficial effect in helping to build consensus.