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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I shall speak also to the other government amendments in the group. As noble Lords will recall, during our debates in Committee I reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to align adult community care services with the right to control in the trailblazers. We made that commitment clear in the welfare reform White Paper. Adult community care services were excluded in the legislation to avoid duplicating existing community care and direct payments legislation. During Committee, we listened carefully to the concerns noble Lords raised, and I recognised the importance of making clear in this Bill our original policy intent of aligning adult community care with the right to control in the trailblazers. That is why during the summer months we worked closely with the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, and RADAR to develop this legislation. I believe that moving the exclusion for the purposes of the pilots effectively strikes the balance between putting in the Bill our commitment to alignment without compromising existing community care legislation. We have developed these amendments in co-production with the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, and RADAR, and I thank them for the work they undertook with us to enable these amendments to be tabled. I want to highlight how useful it has been to work with disabled people to get this legislation right. Without that input, we would not be where we are heading today. I am also delighted that the amendments have attracted support across the parties—the noble Lord, Lord Freud, and the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas of Winchester, have put their names to the changes and demonstrated the cross-party commitment that exists for this part of the Bill. Turning to the amendments, there are three components that I believe are central to meeting the concerns raised here in Committee and also in the other place. First, Amendment 72 inserts Clause 36(3A) which removes the exclusion of adult community care services for the purposes of the pilot schemes. This is entirely in line with our original policy intent to test the effectiveness of alignment through the trailblazers. Secondly, Amendment 73, which inserts a new clause after Clause 39, explicitly refers to the Secretary of State’s powers to issue directions under existing community care legislation. This is a key component because we can achieve the delivery of alignment through directions under existing enactments. Alignment means delivering the effect of the right to control to individuals in receipt of adult community care services. Thirdly, Amendment 73 includes an order-making power that would enable the removal of the full exclusion of community care services at a later date, without recourse to primary legislation. A decision whether to remove the exclusion of community care services will be made once the trailblazers have been evaluated, and in line with decisions relating to wider rollout. As we discussed during Committee, a decision will be taken on whether to extend the right to control based on the evidence from the trailblazers, in particular whether the trailblazers deliver better outcomes for individuals, better value for money for the taxpayer and are affordable. The Law Commission’s work on providing a clearer, more cohesive legal framework for adult social care will also be taken into account. Community care is a matter which is devolved in both Scotland and Wales. Therefore the power to decide whether the exclusion of community care in relation to Scotland and Wales should be permanently removed will rest with the Scottish and Welsh Ministers, respectively. The amendments demonstrate our commitment to alignment but take account of the Law Commission’s ongoing review of the legislation covering adult social care. They make clear the Government’s intention to deliver the significant improvements that disabled people are looking for in joined-up self-directed support. I beg to move.