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Health and Social Care Bill

I am anxious to get on and get home, which means that I shall be brief. The noble Baroness, Lady Barker, has made the arguments on the two amendments and I wish to add only two points. The Government should learn from their experience in these areas, in particular from CAFCASS where the first board had few people, if any, who really understood the nature of the task. That was obviously a disaster. It is absolutely crucial that a board has within it people who understand the nature of the service it is delivering. That does not mean that it has to be totally made up of those kinds of people. I helped to regulate meat hygiene, which is a bit different. After regulating meat hygiene, food standards and telecoms, I am absolutely clear that the difference is that people who understand about quality and protection—which become ingrained within you if work in these fields—need to be on boards such as these because such issues are often seriously overlooked. I shall speak to the other amendment in my name. Roger Morgan, the children’s rights director at the Commission for Social Care Inspection, has been continually concerned about the rights and care of children in hospitals. That does not mean that he thinks that hospitals are getting it all wrong, but that there is no one with inspectorial overview or who is able to talk with children about their experiences and, consequently, to draw out issues that might be useful for the whole of the health service. He has tried very hard to keep that bridge, but that has been more difficult since he has been at Ofsted, which has a strong educational pull. Therefore, it is vital that the new commission appoints a children and adult rights director who can focus on those issues and talk to users right across the spectrum, draw out their thinking, feed it back into the commission and, I hope, change services. I have things to say about the advert and the appointment. The post was mentioned earlier and I do not know whether that relates to Amendments Nos. 7 and 8. I know that the Minister said that he would look at the issue at some point. Maybe he can then tell us where we are on all this.