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Personal Care at Home Bill

In many ways these amendments go to the heart of the Bill and its core problems. The Prime Minister announced the policy at the Labour party conference—we all have our views on why it was announced at that time and in that way. The Government announced the shiny, new policy and then said that they would fund only part of it, with the rest of the cost falling on local authorities that are already obliged to find huge efficiency savings—3 per cent. this year, rising to 4 per cent. next year. That is unacceptable, especially given how this policy was introduced. It is supposed to be implemented from October this year, but most councils have already set their budgets for 2010-11. All the savings that they have identified have already been earmarked. The impact assessment has been roundly criticised, but the phrase that strikes most fear into those concerned about this area of policy is "inherent uncertainty", which is used about the costs of the implementation of this Bill. Simply to proceed on that basis, and to give an open-ended commitment to local authorities, which is precisely what the Bill will do, is entirely unacceptable. If the Government want to press forward with that policy, they are entitled to do so and to justify that. However, surely they should at least restrict the total contribution that must be made by local authorities, so that they can budget sensibly, as the Government rightly suggest they must. There are other implications. The UK Home Care Association has raised concerns that the measure will put a downward pressure on prices paid to independent sector providers, which provide 81 per cent. of publically funded home care, and that home care will be seen as a low-cost option compared with residential care. There is a danger that we would see a further deterioration in wages in the home care sector as a result of local authority pressure. There is already a huge turnover of staff in the care home sector—the rate is nearly a quarter. That is not good for the kind of care for older people that we would like. The message from the home care sector—this is from UKHCA's very good briefing—is simply that""there are no more pips to squeak"" out of it to meet that kind of shortfall. If the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) pressed amendment 48 to a Division, the Liberal Democrats would support him. We all accept that we are in a difficult time of recession, but should the Government say, "We expect that large contribution of £250 million from local authorities, but we are not going to expect more"? Simply put, it seems that the sums in the impact assessment cannot be relied on, and therefore, if the measure goes through, local authorities can expect it to cost them significantly more than the Government's estimate.