Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) Bill

Debate between Baroness Keeley and David Nuttall

Friday 1st November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Nuttall]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will try to be as succinct as I can about the points I want to make about each of the clauses.

Clause 1 deals with apprenticeship requirements. It is the key clause because it states that when a public authority, defined as

“any body or person discharging functions of a public nature, including local authorities”,

prepares to issue a relevant contract—that is, one exceeding a total of £1 million—it must

“give due consideration to the relevant guidelines”.

We have not heard much about those relevant guidelines, but they were published by the Office of Government Commerce in 2009 in a document called “Promoting skills through public procurement”. It is a long document, but I want to refer to one particular sentence. The document goes through the process that a public body has to follow in granting a tender. It says of the stage at which the contract is granted:

“It is at this stage that public authorities should”—

I am afraid that the document is not written correctly because there is a word missing; I think it should say “should meet”—

“Regulation 39 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006”,

which states

“that contracting authorities ‘may stipulate conditions relating to the performance of a public contract, provided that those conditions are compatible with Community law and are indicated in the contract notice and the contract documents or the contract documents’.”

Clearly, the 2006 regulations contained in the guidelines mentioned in clause 1 already give local authorities the power that the Bill seeks to give them in order to do all the things the hon. Gentleman would like them to do.

The second part of clause 1 would require that an authority “may specify” that

“a minimum proportion of the apprentices employed by the contractor are higher or advanced”

apprenticeship level. Because of the use of the word “may”, that could equally mean “may not specify”. The provision is therefore completely superfluous, irrelevant and unnecessary.

“Apprentice” is defined in clause 4 as having

“the meaning given in section 32 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009”.

I thought that I would have a look at that to see what the definition is. It gives a definition not of “apprentice” but of “apprenticeship agreement”, which is not what one would expect from reading clause 4. If the Bill receives a Second Reading, that should be looked at, because clearly some clarification is needed regarding the definition of “apprentice”.

Clause 2 deals with the advertising of work force vacancies. In an intervention, the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish said, “You must be in favour of that”, but it is not as straightforward as that. In some cases, these contracts cover the whole country. Does he intend that, if the contractor needs to take on half a dozen extra workers as a result of getting the contract, they should advertise every single one of those vacancies across the whole country? That is what the clause would mean if taken literally, and of course one has to take it literally, so, if it is a national contract, that is what the contractor would have to do. As the hon. Gentleman himself admitted, this is the one clause that is mandatory, because it

“must require the contractor to…advertise all vacancies”

in local jobcentres.

Another aspect is that many local newspapers rely on job adverts to survive in this day and age. I wonder what they would think of this provision if they suddenly lost their local job adverts as a result. The first thing that many people do when they are looking for a job is to turn to the local paper.

[Barbara Keeley]

What does the hon. Gentleman have to say about the situation with our local paper, which is not delivered to all parts of Salford? A lot of postcode areas do not get a paper and if the jobs were not advertised at the jobcentre, the people who live in those areas, most of which are deprived, would not see them.

[Mr Nuttall]

I think the hon. Lady is referring to a free paper, but what I had in mind was a paid-for paper. Either way, any jobseeker who is anywhere near half-interested in finding a job will not find it beyond their wit to get hold of a paper.

Social Care (Local Sufficiency) and Identification of Carers Bill

Debate between Baroness Keeley and David Nuttall

Friday 7th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley]

We are talking about a reporting duty. If local authorities, working with their health partners, do not report on social care provision, no one else will. Those of us interested in these matters ask questions, but we do not get very good information. Sending freedom of information requests to every social care authority in the country is not the best way for national organisations or Members of the House to get such information. We are asking for a picture of the market to be held in each local area. I am not suggesting a move in a direction in which the Government are not already going. The Government now expect local authorities to be what they call “market shaping”, taking action to drive the market. We are saying that they do not even have a picture of what exists now. Until we have such a picture, which is not just gathered by freedom of information requests, the expectation of the Department and the Government of local authorities is perhaps not reasonable. It is not a budgeting duty but a reporting duty.

I was dealing with sufficiency and the reporting duty and saying that organisations such as Age UK believe it is important that local authorities have a view of the sufficiency of their local care services. To expand on a point my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West has made, the way local authorities are currently cutting back on what they pay in fees for social care beds and nursing home beds is actually creating market distortions, because some providers are simply moving to areas where there are more self-funders. In Greater Manchester, for example, all the nursing home providers might move to Trafford, which is a wealthier borough, and we would not have proper provision in Salford, part of which I represent. What is happening in the market could result in that kind of distortion, and that should be spotted.

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and, indeed, for bringing the matter before the House; she is making a valuable contribution. Does she not share my concern that there is a danger that imposing new duties to prepare the various assessments and reports that the Bill would require could actually take funding away from the provision of front-line services?

[Barbara Keeley]

I have run through some of the details. Front-line services have already been greatly reduced. In fact, local authorities are no longer primary providers, given that they are meeting the needs of a very small group of people.

Let me get back to the point about sufficiency. The all-party group on local government has recently conducted an inquiry into adult social care, supported by the local government information unit. We looked at the role of local government in shaping the local market for social care and took evidence from local authorities that are already acting on that. Interestingly, Nottinghamshire county council told us that it monitors and records occupancy and availability of care home beds for self-funders, which is unusual. Lancashire county council told us that it provides advice and information to all on mainstream services, and signposting to them, regardless of whether people would be eligible for council services, and it is one of the first authorities to do that. The inquiry found some examples of market-shaping activities by local authorities, but the final report was clear that that was only an emerging role for local authorities, and we could not find many examples.

Clause 3 therefore provides that local authorities should assess local care needs and existing social care provision, and if supply does not meet demand, as the hon. Members for Shipley (Philip Davies) and for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) have just touched on, the local authority would have a duty to consider the necessary steps to address the gaps. They would not have to take those steps; it is just that nothing will happen unless they have some idea of how it might happen. In their market-shaping role, for instance, they might try to encourage more nursing home providers of a particular type. That is similar to measures set out in the Childcare Act 2006, through which the Government sought to ensure sufficient local child care.

Clause 4 would ensure that NHS bodies had procedures in place to identify carers, promote their health and well-being and ensure that they received appropriate information and advice. I first sought to introduce such a measure in 2006 through a ten-minute rule Bill, and then again in 2007. I acknowledge that progress has been made, but there is still much to do. As we know, many carers do not recognise that they are carers; they see their caring role as part of being a wife, husband, son or daughter. Many are hidden, particularly at the start of caring.

I believe that a key focus in identifying carers should be concern for the health of those with the heaviest caring commitments. The 2001 census found that 10% of all UK carers were caring for more than 50 hours a week. Interestingly, figures published by the NHS Information Centre show that that figure had doubled, to 22%, by 2010. In Salford, the proportion of carers who provide full-time care has actually been at a higher level for some time. In 2001, around one in four carers in Salford provided care for more than 50 hours a week, and even at the time that was more than twice the national figure for carers with the heaviest commitment. I am almost certain that that is related to health inequalities and poor health.

Two wards in my constituency have very high levels of people caring for relatives with stroke disease, heart disease or cancer, which mean the heaviest commitments. We know that full-time care can take a toll on a carer’s health, so the health needs of carers must be recognised. We know that those caring for more than 50 hours a week are twice as likely to suffer ill health, and those caring for a person with dementia or stroke disease are even more at risk. Early identification and support for those carers means that they can maintain their health and manage and sustain their caring role better.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers centre in Salford has a project to identify carers both within primary care and at the Salford Royal hospital. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to The Princess Royal Trust for Carers for its work in primary care over many years in centres such as the one at Salford. Its work has been done by a primary care worker, Julia Ellis, and the centre manager, Dawn O’Rooke. In fact, the previous Minister responsible for care services, the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam, visited my constituency to hear about the trust’s project to identify carers within primary care. I extend an invitation to the new Minister to do the same.

Different local GP practices do the work of identifying carers differently. For example, practice nurses from the Limes medical centre carry out their identification work when making home visits to patients who seem to have a carer. They run through a series of questions with the patient and carer about who does certain tasks and then fill in a referral card for the practice to ensure that the health team knows about the carer so that they can be referred to sources of advice and support. The Dearden Avenue medical practice has a different approach. Its staff carried out a search on the practice’s computer. For all those patients over 70 who are not in residential care, a letter was sent to the next of kin asking if they were the patient’s carer. Of 149 letters sent, 90 were returned by carers. The carers centre could then send information about the care and support available to the carers, including having an assessment of their own needs.

I am pleased to know that GPs and primary health care teams in my constituency are tackling that work, but there is much more to do. The manager of the carers centre tells me that, having established a network of links within GP practices to identify carers, over 300 referrals a year are made to the centre by local GPs. However, we have some 20,000 carers in Salford, of whom around 5,000 will be caring for more than 50 hours a week. We need to ensure that health bodies take action that meets the scale of the task of identifying carers and referring them for advice and support.

Clause 5 would require local authorities to have a policy in place for identifying young carers and providing support for pupils in schools who are young carers. Young carers are the most hidden of all carers. The 2001 census recorded some 175,000 young carers, but more recent research by the BBC indicates the much higher number of 700,000, which is around 8% of secondary school pupils. Most young carers care for a parent, often a single parent. The care they give might involve much physical care or the difficult task of providing emotional support for a parent with a mental health problem or substance addiction.

The Carers Trust tells us that the identification of young carers remains a key issue, as many young carers seek help only in a crisis. As we have discussed in previous debates, many young carers find that their extra responsibilities lead to their failing to complete work for school, doing badly in exams and, worst of all, being bullied. Although teachers and social workers are the best people to identify and support young carers, there is a lack of professional awareness about their needs and concerns. Young carers report that they can feel stigmatised by teachers, and they might leave school or college prematurely without completing qualifications.

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[Barbara Keeley]

I am sure that it will. The difficulty with capturing this in the Bill, as in any legislation, is that it spreads across Departments. It is something for us to work on, and there is much to be done.

Young carers do not enjoy the same opportunities and outcomes as other children and young people. The Carers Trust tells us that young carers frequently experience worry, stress, anxiety, depression and feelings of loss and panic, as well as mental health problems and risk of self-harm. They fear for the condition of the person they care for, but they often have more fear of being taken into care. They feel angry and resentful because they have such responsibilities, yet they are not recognised. Most of all, they experience a lack of time for play, leisure and sport, and miss out on social time with their own age group. A serious consideration for all of us, given that we are talking about 8% of the secondary school population, is that a caring role also leads to missed educational opportunities, poor educational outcomes, and, later on, reduced employment opportunities. Over a quarter of young carers aged 11 to 16 miss school owing to caring, and that figure rises to 40% when the parent is mentally ill or misusing drugs or alcohol. Young adult carers are twice as likely as their peers not to be in education, employment or training. It is common for them to move into full-time caring after they finish compulsory education, particularly if they are receiving no support.

Clause 6 would place a duty on colleges of further and higher education to identify students who are carers and to have in place policies of support for them. When we included this proposal in the Bill, I did not realise that it was quite ground-breaking and new. A report in 2008 by Young Carers International for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers reported that there were 290,000 young adult carers in the UK. The figures move between 300,000 and 800,000; nobody really has any idea. The report said that apart from statistics that could be obtained from the census,

“Little is known about young adult carers aged 16-24 in the UK”

and:

“Information is sparse about the issues and challenges that they face due to being carers”.”

Young adult carers at university or college have to balance giving care with their academic studies and learning. Some do this by caring at a distance, returning home at weekends or holidays to provide care, but others have to balance care and study by continuing to live at home and travelling to their local university so that they can maintain their regular caring roles. The report told us that none of the young adult carers at university it surveyed was aware of any specific carer support being available at their university. Similarly, they were often unaware of local services for carers that might be able to support them because, sadly, those services have not reached out to university student populations. There is a mismatch in that regard.

That was the situation in 2008. It is interesting that only this year greater awareness of the needs of student carers seems to be developing. The Fair to Care campaign in Scotland is lobbying for the development of carers’ strategies in universities.

[Mr Nuttall]

What is the problem that the hon. Lady is seeking to address in this clause? Is it that she feels that student carers do not have access to information?

[Barbara Keeley]

The problem we are trying to address is that the people who are responsible for the welfare of these students and their progress through their courses do not recognise that caring will get in the way of what they can achieve at university, given all the potential difficulties—for example, a sudden deterioration of the cared-for person’s condition. Policies are often in place for parent carers with children and mature students, but there is a complete gap in what universities have considered for other carers.

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[Mr Nuttall]

My hon. Friend touches on an important point. I fear—I am sure others will, too—that this Bill may unreasonably raise the expectations of that group of carers covered by the wider definition. They may think, “This is me; I’m a carer”, but would they be a carer under the much narrower definition in the Bill? As I say, there is a danger that many carers will feel that this debate is about them, when under the statutory definition in clause 8—it is clear, referring back to section 1 of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995—they may not be covered.

[Barbara Keeley]

It is important for the House to understand that this is a Second Reading debate, and that there will be plenty of opportunities in Committee to look further at interpretations and definitions and to alter those definitions if they are too narrow. First, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will not take up an awful lot more time as others are waiting to speak. Secondly, is he prepared to support the Bill on the basis that if any of the definitions in the interpretations clause were too narrow, they could be looked at further?

[Mr Nuttall]

I am grateful. I was dealing with the point about definitions in response to an intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), but it is part of my wider concerns about the Bill. The Bill’s general aims are entirely laudable. Who would not want to help those who provide care for others, particularly for those who need help, assistance and care? All of us can unite on that. I am fully behind the idea of providing what care we, as a society, can afford to provide for those who need it. However, I think that there is a genuine debate to be had about how much further we can go at present, and about whether the Bill is the right vehicle to provide such support or whether—and I think this is an important point—we should heed the substantial report from the Law Commission, which stated in its first and very clear recommendation that a single Act should replace all the existing legislation. I think that we should give further thought to what has been said this morning about the possibility of incorporating the provisions of this Bill in the draft social care Bill.

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[Barbara Keeley]

The hon. Gentleman should be aware that many carers and disabled people, and their organisations, are following the debate. He has been speaking for more than 40 minutes and rambling around a lot of statistics, and it is now being said on social media that he and his colleagues are talking out a Bill of great value. He should know that people who are following what was a reasonable and proper debate on the Bill do not appreciate the tenor of what he is saying. He is destroying the debate.

[Mr Nuttall]

I have already made my support for carers absolutely clear. My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) has also secured a helpful undertaking from the Minister on ensuring that the Government engage with the Bill’s supporters about the subjects that it deals with in the context of the draft Care and Support Bill.

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[Mr Nuttall]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Let me make a further quick point about the statistics that I was citing. The largest single barrier to employment that was highlighted—by 63% of respondents—was a lack of suitable local job opportunities, so an area’s prevailing employment market is obviously pre-eminent when determining whether a carer or disabled person is able to get into the workplace.

Clauses 1 to 3 would impose a sufficiency duty. The explanatory notes state that the duty

“goes beyond the existing duties and focus of local authorities which are only on those for whom they have direct responsibility—disabled people and carers who meet eligibility criteria and who do not exceed means-testing thresholds. There are currently no duties on local authorities to assess or address supply of non-statutory services for individuals privately purchasing care, by encouraging the development of new services.”

The notes go on to say:

“This clause would ensure that local authorities build a complete and accurate picture of the services needed, provided and purchased in their area.”

It would have been helpful if this duty could have been road-tested somewhere on a trial basis. There could perhaps have been a pilot before the Bill was introduced.

Clause 1(2) states that in discharging the sufficiency duty a local authority must have regard to statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State. It might be expected that such guidance would clarify the terms necessary to determine what amounts to compliance with this sufficiency duty. The explanatory notes helpfully suggest:

“Placing a strategic duty on local authorities to ensure adequate social care would mean local authorities need to assess the care available in their area looking at the supply and demand of care and the affordability, accessibility and quality of provision. They would also need to identify gaps in provision and how these will be addressed. Local authorities would work in partnership with local providers to assess how services could support disabled people and carers to work, where appropriate.”

I will skip a large part of my prepared notes because, as we have heard this morning, where there is a difference between this Bill and the Government’s Bill, the Minister will look at trying to ensure that that requirement is included in the Bill.

The explanatory notes do not tell us the likely cost for every local authority to undertake the assessments that the Bill requires, and that is one of its principal problems. We have no idea of the cost of carrying out an assessment of the social care needs of disabled people and carers in any given area, which is why I suggested that a pilot project might have given us some idea of the likely cost.

[Barbara Keeley]

So that we do not spend a great deal more time on this, will the hon. Gentleman accept that it is not part of the private Member’s Bill procedure in any way to run pilots? That is a matter for the Government. The Bill was introduced a short time ago and that was not possible. It is really not worth his spending a lot of time on that suggestion.

[Mr Nuttall]

I am grateful for that intervention. I appreciate that a pilot cannot be done in the same way that the Government could have done it, but as we have already heard this morning, there are many initiatives going on in local authorities throughout the country, and I am sure that it would have been possible for one local authority to have picked this up and trialled the Bill to at least give us some idea, or put some information before us this morning, of the likely cost, even if it was a matter of someone sitting down and trying to work it out for themselves. There will inevitably be a substantial cost.

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[Mr Nuttall]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. We all want as many people as possible to be able to return to the workplace, and what we are trying to do this morning is arrive at the best solution for achieving that common aim.

Clause 4 relates to the promotion of carers’ health. It would impose a duty on health bodies to:

“(a) promote and safeguard the health and well-being of carers;

(b) ensure that effective procedures exist to identify patients who are about to become carers;

(c) ensure that appropriate systems exist to ensure that carers receive appropriate information and advice”.

Although there are currently no legislative requirements for health bodies to promote the health and well-being of carers specifically, there are already statutory duties on health bodies to promote the health and well-being of people who use health and social care services and members of the public generally. The obvious question is this: what is the point of singling out carers? Surely they are included as a group within the existing legislative provisions.

[Barbara Keeley]

The reason for singling out carers is that they have responsibility for not only their own health, but that of the person they care for, and in many cases they do not take care of their own health and do not have time for doctors’ appointments. We are asking for health bodies to have a specific, extra concern for carers. Given that their whole day can be taken up with caring, that extra duty can sometimes be fulfilled by a GP offering them first or last appointments. The hon. Gentleman has now been speaking for more than 50 minutes. Second Reading is not meant for this sort of line-by-line review; that is meant to happen in Committee. He is pushing it to the point where it is being said outside this place that he is attempting to destroy the Bill and the debate.

[Mr Nuttall]

I am certainly not trying to destroy the Bill. I will stick to my point, because I think that we need to look at this—[Interruption.] [Hon. Members: “In Committee.”] It is an important part of the Bill. Existing legislation covers all members of the public, so I do not think that we need to single out a specific group.

[Mr Nuttall]

That is indeed the case. I am sure that it will be possible to consider all these matters in detail when we look at the draft Bill in Committee.

The NHS operating framework for 2012-13 already provides that carers must receive help and support from local NHS organisations. Primary care trusts are required to agree policies, plans and budgets to support carers with local authorities and carers’ organisations and make them available to local people. It states:

“Following a joint assessment of local needs, which should be published with plans, PCT clusters need to agree policies, plans and budgets with local authorities and voluntary groups to support carers, where possible using direct payments or personal budgets. For 2012/13 this means plans should be in line with the Carers Strategy and: be explicitly agreed and signed off by both local authorities and PCT clusters; identify the financial contribution made to support carers by both local authorities and PCT clusters and that any transfer of funds from the NHS to local authorities is through a section 256 agreement; identify how much of the total is being spent on carers’ breaks; identify an indicative number of breaks that should be available within that funding; and be published on the PCT or PCT cluster’s website by 30 September 2012 at the latest.”

So there is already a lot going on within the NHS. Let us not forget that the Department of Health is providing the NHS with £400 million over the four-year period from 2011-15 to support carers in taking breaks from their caring responsibilities. The Department has also funded the national carers strategy demonstrator sites programme, which is focused on three areas of support to improve carers’ health and well-being, carers’ breaks and health checks, with better NHS support. The new idea of national carers strategy demonstrator sites has been independently evaluated by the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities at Leeds university, which has prepared an excellent report on how successful it has already been.

Clause 5 seeks to place a duty on a local authority to ensure that within 12 months of Royal Assent

“it takes all reasonable steps”—

again, we have no idea of what “reasonable” may amount to—

“to ensure that in relation to…any school within its area and under its control, and…any functions it discharges…there is in place a policy”

to identify and support young carers. However, the clause makes no mention of academy schools. Perhaps when the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South winds up she will be able to explain why academy schools would not be covered, because they are state schools that are independent of local authorities but still funded—

[Barbara Keeley]

To ensure that the hon. Gentleman does not mislead the House or any of the very large number of people who are watching him try to destroy this debate, let me point out that as the promoter of the Bill I do not have an opportunity to wind up. That is not how these debates work.

[Mr Nuttall]

That is absolutely right. I should have said that the hon. Lady might explain by way of intervention why these schools are not included, as she did not mention it in her opening speech.

There is already a lot of very good work going on in this area. In 2009, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services published a model local memorandum of understanding entitled “Working Together to support Young Carers”, which was aimed at providing staff in schools and other adults with a framework to develop support for young carers and their families.

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[Mr Nuttall]

My hon. Friend is right that, under the Localism Act, local authorities now have a general freedom to do what they want without being given specific powers by central Government.

I pay tribute to the important and valuable work of various charities in this sector, for which they should be warmly commended. The Carers Trust charity’s website is a good source, packed with useful information. A particularly useful function enables anyone who is seeking help to find the location of their nearest centre simply by typing in their postcode. It covers the Princess Royal Trust for Carers network and the Crossroads care schemes.

[Barbara Keeley]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Is it not now the case that the hon. Gentleman is departing too far from the Bill’s content? I do not think that a discussion of the website of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers has anything to do with this Second Reading debate.