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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 7: 7: Clause 2, page 2, line 9, leave out subsections (3) to (5) The noble Baroness said: My Lords, it will be convenient also to consider government Amendments Nos. 9, 12 and 14. I note Amendments Nos. 10, 11, and 53, tabled on behalf of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which are also in this group. I have considered them carefully, but I shall wait until I hear the arguments behind them before responding. During Committee, we had a helpful discussion about what the commission’s objectives should be and the importance of setting them out clearly at the start of the Bill. It also became clear that the drafting of the beginning of the Bill, in particular Clause 2, was perhaps not as accessible as it might be. I hope that all noble Lords will agree that the proposed changes allow more straightforward references to health and social care services and the people who use them, and that, together with the new clauses that I shall describe in more detail, they deliver a clear statement of the commission’s core functions, objectives and matters to which it must have regard. I am pleased to confirm that the Commission for Social Care Inspection, the Healthcare Commission and the Mental Health Act Commission have welcomed the amendments. I believe that we all agree that the primary purpose of the commission is to protect the interests of those who use both health and social care services. Government Amendment No. 9 therefore proposes an objective for the commission to reflect this. It gives the new commission a clear, succinct focus on service users. As reported in the Guardian last Wednesday, it will, "““make outcomes for service users the top priority””." Importantly, it clearly refers to social care as well as health. I hope that this will reassure noble Lords that the Care Quality Commission will protect and promote the health, safety and welfare of users of social care as well as healthcare, as has always been our intention. Amendment No. 9 also gives greater prominence to the three outcomes that the commission should help deliver through carrying out its functions; namely, improvements in the services that people receive; delivery in a way that focuses on the needs and experiences of the people who use services; and encouraging the best use of resources. Again, these clearly extend to both healthcare and social care users. There are of course other issues to which the commission will need to have regard. I listened carefully to the debate about whether we had included the right issues and expressed them in the right way. I hope that noble Lords will agree that we have reflected in government Amendment No. 12 the concerns that we heard in Committee. It sets out in a new clause the matters to which the commission must have regard. In particular, there was a strong feeling that the Bill should set out more explicitly how the commission will engage with local involvement networks. I will say more about the importance of effective engagement in our debate on a later group of amendments, but I take this opportunity to highlight that we have listened to noble Lords’ concerns about LINks and therefore placed them at the start of the Bill by including in Amendment No. 12 a reference to the commission having regard to LINks as well as to other people. Concern was felt that the commission should support the rights of all people who use services, not just those of children and vulnerable adults. Amendment No. 12, therefore, requires the commission also to consider the rights of all those who use services, with specific reference to those detained under the Mental Health Act or deprived of their liberty under the Mental Capacity Act. As discussed in Committee, not all providers are public authorities for the purposes of the Human Rights Act. The amendment, in contrast, emphasises the importance of protecting and promoting the rights—in their broadest sense—that we all have. We should also remember that, as we have previously committed, the regulatory regime should reflect the principles of the European Convention. This demonstrates the importance that we place on this issue, although I know the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, has tabled amendments to include additional references to rights in the commission’s objectives and I look forward to hearing what the mover has to say. Government Amendments Nos. 7 and 14 are simply technical amendments that streamline the first few crucial clauses and ensure that the definition of health and social care services is the same throughout Chapter 1. I hope that this demonstrates that the Government share the aspiration of noble Lords for the new commission to have a clear objective, focusing on both health and social care, and that the key issues raised in debate are now reflected in the issues to which the commission must have regard. I therefore urge noble Lords to support the amendments. I beg to move.