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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I rise to make one point very much in support of the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. It is fundamentally important that any home that falls into poor practice should be visited and dealt with fast. My request to Ministers has to do with LINks, which we discussed under the local government Bill. We do not want a lot of duplication of visitors to homes; they have enough to do as it is. However, if the Minister would consider putting into regulations something about the CQC working with LINks and ensuring that if, for example, there is a change of management or there are complaints or concerns about a home, the CQC can get on to LINks and ensure that a visit is made by a LINk and a report made to the CQC, then that would be an inexpensive way of doing things and a very effective way for LINks to operate. In Committee, I and, I think, other noble Lords were concerned that LINks really got stuck into the areas of greatest neglect and greatest need. I would argue that this is where such needs are: small homes for very vulnerable people. I suggested that they did not have to be bothered too much with the big hospitals, because there are all sorts of people visiting those, but there are incredibly vulnerable people in these tiny homes. If noble Lords would consider this, I really do think it could be a major contribution to improving the quality of services for these very vulnerable people.