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Health and Social Care Bill

I hope that nothing will be over the dead body of the noble Baroness. This group of amendments seeks to ensure that LINks are in the Bill. Amendment No. 17 requires the Care Quality Commission to have regard to comments or views expressed by local involvement networks that it considers are relevant. Amendment No. 16 is very similar and singles out LINks as a particular body whose views the commission must take account of when performing its functions. Amendment No. 26 simply defines a local involvement network for the purposes of Amendment No. 16. I agree wholeheartedly that the involvement of those who use care services, carers and the general public must be central to the work of the new commission. Clause 2 already includes a requirement to have regard to the views expressed by and on behalf of members of the public in relation to activities where the commission has functions. My noble friend the Minister has already given commitments to address the issue of patient care, carer and user involvement as we move forward with the Bill. As discussed on Report in the Commons—someone mentioned this earlier—Clause 2 was specifically amended to refer to ““on behalf of””, to ensure that the commission listens to representative groups, which include, but are not limited to, LINks. Amendment No. 21A places a duty on the new commission to summarise the comments and views expressed by LINks and to report on the quality of LINks arrangements in each locality. Under Clause 79, the commission is already required to make an annual report, which must cover the way in which the commission has exercised its functions during the year. I reassure my noble friends Lady Wilkins and Lord Harris that it will include reporting on how it has engaged with the public. It seems highly likely that, as part of its engagement work over the year, the commission will have worked with LINks as a very important stakeholder, and that will duly be captured. As previous debates have indicated, we are committed to ensuring that the Bill reflects more strongly the aspirations for the involvement of patients, service users, families and carers. As to whether the commission should have a role in monitoring the effectiveness of LINks, I put it to the Committee that that is an appropriate function for the commission. I say that because LINks have their own accountability. They are required to be transparent and must make public certain decisions that they make. They report annually direct to the Secretary of State and must provide details concerning their activities as set out in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 as well as the extent to which local views were taken on board by commissioners and providers. LINks must also report on the amount of money received to fund their activities and how it was spent. We must be careful not to confuse or dilute LINks’ own particular accountability. The commission’s functions are assuring the safety and quality of services, safeguarding the rights of patients subject to the Mental Health Act, commissioner assurance, the performance assessment of providers and minimising the burden of regulation. The proposal that the commission should consider the effectiveness of LINks therefore does not seem to fit with that remit. Indeed, placing the role with the commission would appear to cut across the arrangements to review their effectiveness.