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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, Amendment No. 57 would require the CHRE to commission independent information and advice services to assist members of the public considering reporting a concern to the healthcare professional regulatory body and to those who appeared as witnesses in cases adjudicated by the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator. The amendment inserts this into the list of the CHRE’s general statutory functions. The willingness of members of the public to make their concerns known to regulators is vital. This is fully understood by the regulatory bodies. Although I have sympathy with the spirit of this amendment, we want to keep this responsibility firmly with regulators who have the responsibility for investigation and presenting the cases at hearings. The role of the CHRE is to oversee the performance of the regulatory framework, not to become part of the fitness-to-practise process. Such direct involvement in complaints as this amendment proposes would undermine this hugely important oversight role. Clearly, the CHRE agrees with the Government on this. It may reassure noble Lords to know that information and advice is already provided by the regulators themselves on how a member of the public can make a complaint and the procedures to deal with it. For example, the General Medical Council has published A Patient’s Guide—How You Can Refer a Doctor to the GMC and the General Chiropractic Council published How to Complain About a Chiropractor: Telling the General Chiropractic Council About Your Concerns. These publications tell the public about the role of the organisation, what information they will need to provide about a complaint, the process followed after a complaint is made and what the outcomes might be. All the healthcare profession regulators publish similar information for members of the public and patients. Support for patients, complainants and witnesses is not limited to leaflets. The regulators provide telephone advice on making complaints and on whether the matter might be better dealt with locally than by a national regulator. They also provide detailed information and advice to members of the public who appear as witnesses in a fitness-to-practise case, such as the layout of the hearing room and an explanation of the hearing process. The Government are confident that the GMC and GOC will continue to provide the necessary information and support to witnesses OHPA’s hearings. In addition, the Bill requires the OHPA to ensure that the public are informed about its functions, as provided in Clause 102. While we think that the regulators should provide this detailed advice, I can assure noble Lords that it is very much the role of the CHRE to consider whether the information and advice that regulators provide is satisfactory from the patient’s perspective. If it is not, the CHRE can raise this issue in its report to Parliament on the performance of the regulator, which is a clear mechanism for triggering any specific improvements needed. The Government are still looking at local complaints resolution, and I hope to be able to say more about complaints at Third Reading. The CHRE already provides on its website information about other organisations that can provide support to patients. On this basis and in the light of my explanations and the fact that we will be looking again at local complaints resolution, I hope that the noble Earl will be able to withdraw this amendment.