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Health and Social Care Bill

moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 10, Amendment No. 11: 11: Schedule 1, line 10, at end insert— ““( ) The Secretary of State shall appoint a member of the Commission, who must be or recently have been a relevant service user, to chair the Service User Panel.”” The noble Baroness said: I strongly support the need for a service user panel for the CQC and for this to be set out as a statutory requirement in Schedule 1. Mechanisms for guaranteeing user involvement need to be embedded in the CQC’s governance as well as its functions. Amendment No. 11 would ensure an effective link between the proposed service user panel and the commission by requiring the Secretary of State to appoint a member of the commission who is a service user to chair the panel. Without this direct line of influence to the commission proper, my fear would be that the impact of a service user panel would be diluted and would not see the effective mainstreaming of users’ views and aspirations. As the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, pointed out, Parliament was careful to ensure that there was no such risk for the Equality and Human Rights Commission disability committee, which similarly has a direct line into the commission via its chair. User involvement is not just desirable in itself; it leads to better policy-making and improved services. With increasing personalisation on the agenda in both health and social care, it is essential that users are involved at every level of the new organisation. It would be difficult truly to personalise a public service if its regulator had minimal user involvement. I would therefore urge the Minister to accept the case for the provision set out in Amendments Nos. 10 and 11. I beg to move.