Disabled People’s Right to Control (Pilot Scheme) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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Baroness Stowell of Beeston
That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Disabled People’s Right to Control (Pilot Scheme) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012.
Relevant document: 9th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
My Lords, for the record, I should like to begin by paying tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton. Although she is not here today, it was her work that helped shape this policy and it was she who chaired the Advisory Group on Right to Control until earlier this year.
The purpose of these amendment regulations is to make two changes to the main Right to Control regulations, which were made in November 2010. The first change is to extend the period of the current pilot from December 2012 to December 2013, and the second is to remove Oldham Council from the list of local authorities delivering Right to Control.
In November 2010 your Lordships considered and supported the Right to Control (Pilot Scheme) Regulations. The purpose of the 2010 regulations was to pilot giving disabled people in certain parts of England a legal entitlement to choice and control over some of the public services they receive. Rather than providing disabled people with what we think they need or what is most convenient for the service provider, the Right to Control pilot gives the power to the disabled person to decide how money is best spent to meet their needs. For many, this right has been empowering. However, others have concluded that they do not want the responsibility of managing a personal budget and are happy for the services they need to be purchased and managed on their behalf. A third group may have been keen to take control of the funding allocated for them but have felt that they lacked the knowledge or experience to do this. This is where the support of their peers, perhaps from a disabled people’s user-led organisation, has helped them to gain the skills and confidence to take control of their funding.
The purpose of running a pilot scheme is to test what works and what does not, and Right to Control is no different. Seven trailblazing areas in England are currently testing the right. The results from the pilot will be used to inform decisions about the long-term future of Right to Control. The pilot scheme is currently due to end in December 2012, and when the 2010 regulations were made we thought that two years would be enough time for the pilot to show us what has worked best and how. However, while a great deal of progress has been made since the pilots began, there is still insufficient evidence on which to make an informed decision about the long-term future of Right to Control.
This view was informed by the interim evaluation report, which was published in February of this year, and by our ongoing monitoring, review and discussion with all the trailblazing areas. The interim evaluation identified some early successes as well as some areas for improvement. Moving from the start-up phase to a steady-state environment took longer than originally envisaged and the trailblazing areas also told us that the cultural change required proved to take far longer than had been anticipated.
Although progress continues to be made and more than 34,000 people have benefited from Right to Control, we concluded that there was insufficient evidence on which to make a firm decision about the best way forward. As a result, we decided that the best solution was to extend the pilot scheme by a further year, taking it to December 2013. This will enable us to gather more information and evidence of what works best, both for disabled people and for the authorities and organisations delivering Right to Control.
At this point, I should reassure the Committee that the primary legislation in the Welfare Reform Act 2009 places an overall limit of 36 months on the pilot. To be clear, it is not possible, even if it were our intention, to come back in another year with a proposal to extend the pilot again. The Welfare Reform Act 2009 also requires us to consult on any draft regulations about Right to Control. So between June and September of this year we consulted on the draft regulations before the Committee today. Although the number who responded to the consultation was low—only 40— those who did respond were in favour of extending the pilot by a year. We also consulted with, and sought the agreement of, each of the local authorities currently delivering the right, and all but one agreed to continue in the extension period. Oldham Council decided that it did not want to remain as part of the pilot but, importantly, its participation so far will be captured in the evaluation. The experiences of disabled people living in Oldham and of Oldham Council will feed into the formal evaluation and the overall lessons learnt from the pilot. We will use the extension period to continue to collect management information and to monitor progress. The results from this, together with the results of the full evaluation exercise, which is due next spring, will enable us to make a final, evidence-based decision on the way forward.
In conclusion, we see the extension of the pilot scheme as a key factor in reaching the right decision about the future of Right to Control. I am satisfied that the draft regulations are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and therefore I beg to move.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the introduction of these regulations, which have our full support. Right to Control is an important new right for disabled people, giving them greater control and choice over the support they receive to go about their daily lives. It results from the powerful advocacy, not least from the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, who the Minister rightly referred to, which was advanced during the Welfare Reform Bill 2009 and from the approach of co-production which helped frame these important opportunities. We were also supportive of Right to Control being piloted through trailblazers prior to being rolled out nationally, with the inevitable lessons and challenges that emerge from its practical application.
As the noble Baroness has said, we have had the benefit of the interim evaluation of the trailblazers. However, although not published until February 2012, this related to field work undertaken between June and September 2011, not long after the trailblazers had started. The interim evaluation is therefore inevitably influenced more by start-up issues and less by what might become the steady state. Nevertheless, there are some encouraging messages, even from this early assessment, around changes in culture, encouraging partner organisations to work together and positive influences on how delivery staff work with disabled people. The evaluation identified co-production as having long-term benefits for the design and delivery of services for disabled people.
However, at the early stage the evaluation pointed up some big challenges, including lack of awareness and understanding of Right to Control among staff, including front-line staff. This extended to a lack of certainty over process, a lack of differentiation from previous personalisation initiatives, and a lack of knowledge about legal entitlement.
There was also a lower than expected take-up of Right to Control in the Work Choice and Access to Work funding streams, although it was noted that young people’s access might be through their college rather than through Jobcentre Plus. There was caution on the part of some delivery staff about investing time if the future of Right to Control is not assured. There was the perception of conflicting priorities with the belief by some that it made it more difficult to safeguard vulnerable adults. For some trailblazers some funding streams were already tied into block contracts. Moving away from these has resource implications at a time of severe financial constraints. Budget cuts, redundancies and organisational restructuring have affected trailblazers, making implementation and delivery of Right to Control more difficult.
The Minister said in the other place, and the noble Baroness has reiterated it this afternoon, that the Government continue to monitor the position and to collect management information. Perhaps we can hear how matters are progressing on those above issues. What proactive steps are the Government taking to overcome some of these difficulties and challenges? Collecting information is all very well but there needs to be something more positive, particularly around awareness and understanding. Clearly, trailblazer authorities and stakeholders have a role in this, but so do the Government. Is it still the Government’s intention to see Right to Control being rolled out nationally?
As I said, we support these regulations and the extension of the pilots for one year—as we have heard, the maximum permitted under the 2009 Act. However, we would not wish that to be an excuse for doing nothing in the mean time to help make a success of Right to Control.
Lord Addington
My Lords, I have listened to what has been said. It is very nice to discuss the continuation under this Government of a good idea that originated with the previous Government. Clearly, the political class has reached a degree of understanding on this issue. We should all applaud that. Most of the points that I was going to make have already been made. Indeed, the principal one has just been made by the noble Lord, Lord Low, which concerns what we are going to use the information for outside the immediate study area. People often say yes to something in a certain area but forget that it will apply across to something else. This information will be held not only within the subsets of a particular department but will be passed across departments. That often takes a great deal of time. I hope that in responding my noble friend will give us some idea of how the information will be used and will give a guarantee that it will be used not only throughout the relevant department but throughout the Government, or at least that it will be made available to all government departments. I would be very relieved if that were the case because this information is used to allow people to function independently. At the very least it should be brought forward to the start of the assessment process and not just kept for when a decision is implemented.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
My Lords, I am very grateful to noble Lords for their contributions. I am particularly grateful for the support that has been expressed by the noble Lords, Lord McKenzie and Lord Low, and my noble friend Lord Addington. This is an important matter and, as has been pointed out, it achieved cross-party support when it was first put forward a couple of years ago. It is heartening to know that that support continues.
I shall try to deal systematically with some of the points that have been made. The noble Lords, Lord McKenzie and Lord Low, asked what the Government’s view is on whether they will be able to roll out Right to Control nationally. Obviously, because we are continuing this pilot, we do not currently have a view on whether Right to Control should be rolled out, because there is insufficient evidence to make a firm decision on its future. But the very fact that we are continuing this pilot and want to gain more evidence and information, because as a principle this is something that we support, I hope provides some confidence to all noble Lords.
The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, asked how the pilots will be monitored during the extension period. The process will continue to include monthly reports and management information submitted by the trailblazers to DWP, monthly meetings between the project managers and DWP’s Right to Control project team, six-monthly reviews of individual trailblazers by the team and, of course, monitoring and support given to them by the team back at DWP.
The noble Lord also asked about awareness. After highlighting, as he did, the good things that had come out of the interim evaluation and the advantages that had been delivered by Right to Control so far, he went on to summarise some of the things that were perhaps less encouraging. He asked whether people were aware of this opportunity and what efforts we were going to make to raise further awareness. The legislation requires that, once it has been decided that a person is eligible for a Right to Control service, the responsible authority must inform them that they have a right to control—telling them which services are included and the likely monetary value of the support for which they are eligible—and about organisations that can provide advice and information about Right to Control and what it involves. The trailblazers also have a programme of awareness training for staff, and in the department the Right to Control team has facilitated the delivery of events for practitioners from all funding streams where learning and good practice in delivery has been, and will continue to be, shared.
The noble Lord also asked how many people have benefited from Right to Control. As I said in my opening remarks, until June 2012, over 34,000 disabled people have exercised their right; the latest management information for the period to the end of September, which is currently being evaluated, indicates that at least 37,000 now stand to have benefited.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, sought further information about how Right to Control is being evaluated. He made an important point, referring me to the fact that “no decision about us should be taken without us”. There are three elements to the independent evaluation; it is quantitative and qualitative, and there is a cost/ benefit analysis. The views and experiences of staff involved in the implementation and delivery of Right to Control will be taken into account, as will those of providers, customers and their carers, and, of course, disabled people’s user-led organisations. So everybody involved will be properly consulted as the evaluation continues.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, also asked about potential conflict between different benefits that someone might be entitled to, and their operation within Right to Control. It is worth making the simple but important point that Right to Control is about services and not benefits. On Access to Work in particular, this is currently part of Right to Control within trailblazing areas, and we will consider the future of Access to Work and Right to Control together.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, raised concerns around the impact of changes in structure in the department and the local authorities, and their effect on the delivery of Right to Control. While it is correct that there have been some inevitable changes in staff in local authorities and the DWP, some staff have also been working on Right to Control throughout. We have tried to ensure that there is best practice and learning both when people are replaced and between the different trailblazing areas. In the same vein, the noble Lord, Lord Low, asked about joined-up working and the efforts we will make to break down some of the institutional barriers. I can confirm that officials in the DWP are in regular contact with their counterparts in other government departments and that they have also facilitated the delivery of events for practitioners from all funding streams where learning and good practice regarding the delivery of Right to Control can be shared.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, also asked about the level of control that people can have over their support. People can choose different degrees of control. For example, they might choose to continue to allow the public authority to arrange support on their behalf, whether it is an existing or a different service. They might choose to receive a direct payment or might prefer, as some people surely would, a mixed approach, with some funding taken as a direct payment while continuing to use some services arranged by the authority.
My noble friend Lord Addington asked whether any local authorities act as control sites for the purposes of evaluation. I can tell him that seven local authorities have agreed to be matched as comparison sites for the trailblazers. The outcomes of deserving people and their Right to Control trailblazer areas will be compared with a group of disabled people who are eligible for services included in the Right to Control pilot scheme but who do not live in the trailblazer areas. These individuals will be drawn from the matched comparison areas that have been selected because they are similar to the trailblazer areas. That information will be used when considering the final decision along with the formal evaluation.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, asked whether I would meet disabled people’s organisations to discuss choice and control more generally. Of course, I would be delighted to do so and I am sure that my honourable friend Esther McVeigh, who is the Minister responsible for disabled people, is in regular contact. I would happily join her in meeting representatives of organisations to hear more from them and to see what more we can do. As I said at the beginning, the principle of Right to Control is one that we can support, and I hope to see an extension of the pilots and to receive a full and comprehensive evaluation of something that might be part of the future. On the basis that I have addressed all the points raised, I beg to move.