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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 90: 90: Clause 44, page 22, line 9, at end insert— ““( ) The Commission shall commence its functions under this section on the same day that the Commission commences its functions under section 2.”” The noble Baroness said: The issue addressed by this amendment is one that has seized the minds of people involved in social care more than many others. We have talked at length in considering the last two groups about the expertise which already exists in social care to conduct special reviews and the importance of them in influencing outcomes for those receiving services. This amendment seeks to ensure that the CQC is able to conduct special reviews from day one of its inception rather than having to wait for a period of one year, as provided in the Bill. When this matter was discussed in another place, the Minister of State for Health said: "““The new Care Quality Commission will be able to conduct urgent reviews on issues that it thinks are a matter of safety or ""quality in the initial 12 months phase. However, given the substantial registration process that will need to be established within that year, we believe that there should be a transition period during which it does not conduct special reviews””.—[Official Report, Health and Social Care Bill Committee, 17/1/08; col. 310.]" In the world of social care, that comment has been greeted with a great deal of scepticism. That scepticism goes back to two reasons to which noble Lords have already referred at different points in our deliberations. I have said before that Ministers underestimate the scope and the pace of change going on in the commissioning and provision of social care services. Ministers have underestimated the cumulative effect of their own policies such as Putting People First, the introduction of individual budgets and so on. I also think that they underestimate how difficult will be the rolling out of individual budgets from the group which already has them—those with learning disabilities who have a lot of support—to other client groups. Given that, there is potential not just for very bad practice on an individual basis, but for patterns of bad practice to form in the coming two years. It is not right to leave individual recipients of care at some risk because the regulator is not up and fully functioning; nor is it right to leave providers for that same period. A credible reason for the one-year delay has not been given. I refer to the points made to the Committee by the noble Lord, Lord Patel of Bradford. He was confident that he would carry forward his staff and their existing expertise into the new commission. If the Bill stays as it is, with a year-long bar on the performance of special reviews, the new commission is at risk of losing the expertise of staff transferred from CSCI. I beg to move.