---

Health and Social Care Bill

On the issue of costs and the ombudsman, the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) will know that the health service ombudsman for England is independent of Government, and she has made it clear that she has plans in place to ensure that her office is prepared to handle the expected increase from 1 April 2009. She has been exploring the funding that she is likely to require directly with the Treasury, rather than with my Department. She also made it clear in the memorandum that she tabled for the Committee, which has been shared with hon. Members, that she would be happy to provide them directly with any further information. On the question whether the complaints to the ombudsman would be followed up by the Care Quality Commission, the regulations under clause 16 make it clear that the detailed requirements of the registration system are likely to require all providers of health and adult social care to have appropriate complaints processes in place. In this case, the CQC would examine an organisation's handling of complaints and hold it accountable for how robust its arrangements were. That consideration would include whether organisations were learning from complaints, as we all want them to do. On the issue of self-funding, I am sure that the hon. Member for Eddisbury is aware that the Government accepted that it was wrong that people who funded their own social care had no recourse to independent resolution of complaints. It was therefore with great pleasure that we were able to confirm on Third Reading in the other place that we would take the next available legislative opportunity to extend the remit of the local government ombudsman, so that he or she could investigate complaints by self-funders. To achieve that, we will amend the Local Government Act 1974. Of course, the local government ombudsman already has a role to play in investigating complaints by people whose care is arranged or funded by local authorities. A new responsibility for self-funder complaints will sit logically with those existing duties, and the ombudsman's staff will have the advantage of already understanding the types of issues that arise in adult social care.