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National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Social Welfare) Order 2009

Perhaps I may take this opportunity to welcome the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, to the Front Bench. I know that from time to time he has enjoyed himself very much at the Millennium Stadium, and I hope that that will continue to be the case. I turn first to the legislative competence order on social welfare. Did I hear the Minister correctly when he said that the First Minister actually dealt with this order on 15 July "last year"? It is now 15 July 2009, so the process has taken a whole year. I should say to the Committee that I am not a fan of the process and stated that clearly during the Government of Wales Bill in 2006. I said that we would face administrative problems as a result. The time that has been taken accounts for some of the delay that was mentioned earlier by the noble Lord who spoke for the Official Opposition. The provision of care for carers which is set out in this order is extremely important. As has already been said, carers need care, and warm tributes have already been paid to them for the work that they do. However, their well-being is affected by their responsibilities, and the provision set out in this LCO to provide social care services for helpers is important, particularly in relation to non-residential care services. The 11 exceptions, including the Children’s Commissioner and child benefit, are welcome, while the provision that, ""any person may secure social care services on their behalf"," is also welcome. Account appears to have been taken of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008. The Welsh Assembly Government can give guidance to local authorities and indeed carry out inspections and make regulations, but it has been noted that there are still gaps in service provision which, it is hoped, this legislation will put right. The importance of identifying carers, particularly young carers, has been set out. I came across many young carers and the difficulties they face when I was a Member of the other place, so the provision of correct information is important. Cross-border co-operation is absolutely vital, as is the synergy between the National Health Service and social care provision in local authorities. When, for example, carers have to go from Llandrindod to Hereford, a distance of 40 miles, to accompany someone in their care, it is a whole-day operation. Because of my former direct involvement in Powys, I want to point something out. The border between Wales and England is 132 miles long, therefore even longer than the border between Scotland and England. As there is no district general hospital in Powys, people have to go to one in Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Newport, Cardiff, Abergavenny, Swansea, Carmarthen, Neath or Aberystwyth. That is the situation in the most sparsely populated county south of the Highland line in Scotland. It is unacceptable in terms of service provision, but, of course, social services cross the border. Indeed, in places like Presteigne, English people living on the English side of the border utilise Welsh social provision as well; those parts of Herefordshire and Shropshire are very remote in England. We have to be careful about these aspects. The Welsh Affairs Committee’s report on cross-border provision for health services pointed out—I shall not read from it—that there are totally different funding principles at stake between England and Wales, which caused both confusion and difficulties with the delivery of service. I point that out only as a principle, because I could talk about that sort of thing for a very long time. The exceptions to the matters that the LCO will look at have already been covered thoroughly. That is a logical provision that addresses the limitations to Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006. It may be controversial in terms of the logicality of the legislation because it includes restrictions as well, but the main point is that it is a technical amendment, and it is welcome because it makes clear what the provisions are and what specifically defines the agreement between the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly Government about where responsibilities and legislative compentency lie. In that respect particularly, I welcome the latter LCO. I welcome the other LCO regarding social welfare. It needs a lot of work and application by both the Assembly and the UK Government to make matters better.