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Health and Social Care Bill

Having listened to the passion of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, I very much agree with what he said, as well of course with the amendment, particularly because it reminds me of when I chaired a local authority investigation, on behalf both of the unions and the local authorities, into local authority care homes of all ages. We have all heard of the terrible things that are happening in many homes, and equally we all know of the marvellous things that are happening in many homes, but this problem of more and more elderly people going into care with very few people to look after their interests is not going to go away. We all know what happens during inspections. I have served on hospital authorities and everything else, and I know that everything is cleaned up and made nice and tidy for the inspection, so I entirely support the point made about uninspected visits. Why should local authority members not be responsible for one of the homes in their area and make a friendly visit at any time of the day or night? It always struck me as very odd indeed that it is always the officials who make the inspections. I am sure that some members of local authorities do visit their homes, but if they were allocated a particular home and a particular responsibility and formed a relationship, that would be one way of looking at the whole matter. I merely throw that open to the Minister to think about. Perhaps he will take up some of the ideas.