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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 18: 18: Clause 2, page 2, line 11, at end insert— ““( ) the extent to which complaints about the provision of health and social care by members of the public, in particular users of health and social care services, are adequately dealt with by the bodies which it regulates,”” The noble Baroness said: All the amendments that I shall propose come from the Joint Committee on Human Rights. As you know, the Joint Committee scrutinises all Bills for human rights implications. We recently decided to try to ensure implementation of our recommendations by producing draft amendments that we hope the Government will consider seriously and ideally accept. I express my warm gratitude to the Minister for arranging a meeting where we could discuss the amendments proposed by the Joint Committee. The Bill engages human rights to a considerable degree. I will say more about that when I speak to a later grouping. Here, I shall represent only the Joint Committee and its amendments and keep my own views about matters such as amalgamating inspectorates to a later stage of the proceedings. I will speak briefly to Amendment No. 18, which is one of our two amendments about complaints. The other is Amendment No. 63, which has not been grouped with it. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has proposed the amendment as a result of the findings of its report into older people in healthcare. The people whom the committee was concerned about were vulnerable and powerless. In that inquiry, we heard a lot of evidence that strongly echoes the remarks made earlier this afternoon by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, when he described his search for a care home. Being able to complain without fear of victimisation is an essential element of the protection of rights of all vulnerable people, whether they are prisoners, detained mental patients, people in hospital or people receiving social care. It is not just about being able to complain; it is also important to get a satisfactory and speedy response. The amendment would require the Care Quality Commission, in exercising its functions, to consider the extent to which the complaints of those who use the services are dealt with adequately by the providers of health and social care who are being regulated. Amendment No. 63, our second on complaints, would require the Secretary of State to enable the Care Quality Commission to hear individual complaints where the service users were not satisfied that their direct provider had handled a complaint effectively. As I indicated, the amendments in this group are intended to deal with problems that we identified in our study into older people in healthcare. These were that the system was inaccessible; did not meet all the complaints that residents may wish to raise, particularly where human rights were at issue; and could not deal with complaints raised by self-funders, who could complain only directly to their provider—which was difficult when they were resident in a care home—or through a contractual claim in the civil courts. The Government responded to our report, making it clear that, in their view, these amendments were not necessary because, in cases where care is commissioned by the NHS or local authorities, there will be a statutory complaints process with a further avenue of complaint to the relevant ombudsman, who is either the health ombudsman or the Local Government Ombudsman. Those whose care is privately funded will not be covered by these procedures, but the Government are considering what options should be available to them. I hope that the Minister can tell us what the options will be for those whose care is privately funded, and whether the Government have had any rethinking on this question as a result of the Joint Committee’s reports and amendments. I beg to move.