---

Health and Social Care Bill

The noble Earl reminded me of the third point that I wanted to make earlier. He has added another query to that question. My earlier question, which was in a way answered by the noble Baroness, was how she could be absolutely sure that the health professionals would give consistent clinical advice across the piece. If one talks to mothers or reads information from a number of organisations, one will learn that there is a great postcode lottery in the availability of clinicians in these groupings and that health visitors often do not have the required time to give the kind of advice that might be required. My further query, following the noble Earl’s intervention, is on what basis the healthcare professionals would give the advice. If the evidence indicated that different nutritional inputs, apart probably from folates, which are evidenced but not mentioned here, did not make a difference, what would they advise, particularly as the Government have now said that the grant might be to provide items of clothing or other things—I use ““things”” in a different context here—to alleviate a mother’s anxiety in the early days of pregnancy? I am not against the grant. Everyone who is expecting a child is pretty anxious about the added cost, but, like the noble Earl, I wonder how the advice will be given. I have sympathy with his view that the grant, rather than being universal, might better have been directed to those who are in greater need. What is the Minister’s advice on that?