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Care Homes

She has written to say that there are big concerns about the change in the funding formula for care homes, which I think we all agree causes grave difficulty for people in care homes, because so often the service user must pick up the bill. The hon. Member for Teignbridge talked about quality, which causes deep concern with the demise of the Commission for Social Care Inspection. One could rehearse the various arguments about what will happen to CSCI, but we all believe that the challenge for the future will be to ensure that the CQC continues to build on the good work of CSCI and does not let social care and social care inspection become a second-order issue within its overall work. The hon. Gentleman rightly mentioned immigration and training pressures, the high turnover of staff—that was highlighted in the e-mail—and that the quality of the work force is vital. I hope that Dame Denise Platt's recommendations, not least from her 2007 review of the status of social care, which have yet to be implemented by the Government, will be a deep influence for action by the Minister in the coming months. The litmus test for him will be to give as much of a clue as he can, in addressing the issues raised by the hon. Member for Teignbridge, about what the Green Paper is intended to cover and whether it will include costed options, so that we can at last have a conversation with the British public on this live and crucial issue.