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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I too welcome this group of amendments, showing, as they do, the Government’s commitment to user involvement. I want particularly to speak in very warm support of the mention of carers in Amendment No. 13. One of the key concerns about the Bill was the original lack of requirement on the commission to involve and consult carers during the course of its work, alongside service users and patients. Carers’ lives are influenced to a considerable degree by the quality, accessibility and affordability of care services. Social care policy is finally recognising—through, for example, the Putting People First concordat and the National Strategy for Carers, the latest version of which was launched by the Prime Minister last week—that carers should be seen as partners in care and consulted and involved more by service providers. It was therefore essential that the Bill reflected these developments. These amendments will provide more recognition for carers and more recognition of the fact that most social care is provided not by any agency that is subject to inspection, but by family, friends and neighbours.