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Health and Social Care Bill

At Second Reading, many noble Lords spoke about the importance of ensuring that patients, people who use social care services and their families and carers are involved in the work of the Care Quality Commission. I hope that I was clear about the importance the Government also attach to that. Many noble Lords have drawn attention to the excellent work of the three current commissions in involving those who use health and adult social care services in their work. I reassure noble Lords that this is something that we are absolutely committed to retaining and carrying forward to the commission. There is no doubt in my mind that the new commission will be just as user-focused as the current commissions and that it will build on their good work. It is worth remembering that the current bodies are not under any specific legal duty in this regard. The requirement in Clause 2 for the commission to have regard to views expressed by and on behalf of members of the public is therefore a new duty. That will of course include patients and service users and those who represent them, such as LINks. That sets a good foundation for the new commission’s programme of involvement and engagement, which I am sure it will develop. In terms of having suitable mechanisms for enabling ongoing involvement and commentary on its work, we had sought to establish such a mechanism through the requirement in Schedule 1 to appoint an advisory committee, to whose advice the commission will have to have regard. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, along with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, has in Amendment No. 10 made the case for a more specific requirement to have a separate advisory committee comprised solely of patients, service users and their families and carers, to be known as the service user panel. The noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, has proposed a further addition to Amendment No. 10, through Amendment No. 11, which would require the commission to appoint one of its members who is or who has recently been a user of health or social care services to chair the service user panel. There is no doubt in my mind that direct experience of services would be very valuable in informing the way in which the commission carries out its work. However, I expressed my concerns when we discussed Amendments Nos. 6 and 9 about seeking to specify what kind of background members of the commission should have. I therefore do not think that we should be prescriptive about this in the Bill. As a general point, I emphasise the importance of flexibility in engaging with users and carers. Innovation is key and, as I have mentioned, the Healthcare Commission, the CSCI and the Mental Health Act Commission all engage well with users, using a variety of methods of engagement and involvement. However, I recognise the importance that noble Lords have placed on the CQC having appropriate user involvement and engagement, as very eloquently described by my noble friend. I will, therefore, undertake to consider how we could strengthen the current arrangements for ensuring that the commission has strong public, patient, service user and carer involvement in its work, while maintaining a flexible approach, with a view to reporting back at a later stage of the Bill’s passage. Given that reassurance, I hope that noble Lords will feel able to withdraw the amendment.