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Adults with Learning Disabilities

I am greatly encouraged by that response to the intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Sir Nicholas Winterton). My constituency has a portion of east Cheshire—the new east Cheshire coming into being on 1 April—within it. The Minister's response is hugely encouraging, and not only given that we have those advocacy services. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 is relevant. It is vital that the LINks—local involvement networks—should also be properly funded. There are big questions at the moment about whether the funding will be adequate. I hope that the Minister will have an opportunity to take some of the points that he has just made, which were very welcome, back to ministerial colleagues to ensure that there is a co-ordinated Government approach to a proper funding base for those various organisations. That has been a running sore for nigh on 10 years, since community health councils were scrapped. At last, the Government are beginning to recognise that there is real value in government in having good advocacy and, indeed, complaining services, which do need some form of public funding support to make them sustainable.