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Personal Care at Home Bill

Although I am pleased that we are having the Committee stage of a Bill on social care, I must begin by saying that the Liberal Democrats, too, have real concerns about the timing and process in respect of this Bill. The Bill has one clause and covers less than two sides of A4 paper. The way that it was announced was regrettable; it was announced not to the House, but to the Labour party conference. It is also only one piece of the jigsaw in terms of the great social care crisis. It was announced mid-Green Paper consultation and pre the White Paper that is supposed to be published in a few years, and came with a clearly inadequate impact assessment. Regardless of what the policy is, this is, as Lord Lipsey said,""a very bad way to do policy"." Turning to the amendments, it is very important that we start with accurate definitions, not only of what is a care home, but of what we mean by personal care. I regret that the amendments that were selected do not include one that probes what we mean by personal care. An understanding of that definition is even more fundamental than what we mean by people living in their own homes, or care homes. I draw the House's attention to the detailed and interesting definition of personal care suggested by Help the Aged and Age Concern, and I regret that we will not get a chance to debate that. We must also look at the experience in Scotland—at the situation that has developed there arising from a lack of clarity about what is meant by personal care. This Bill presented us with a great opportunity to look again at, and clarify, what we mean by personal care, but that opportunity has been missed.