Women: Board Membership

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Baroness Northover

Monday 17th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

We are indeed pleased at the progress that is being made but the noble Baroness is absolutely right, as is the previous noble Baroness, that progress needs to continue. The Prime Minister said in February 2012 that further action has to be considered as a back-stop and Vince Cable said in April 2013 that the Government would, if necessary, adopt tougher measures. The warning is there. If there is continued progress, that is great. If not, there are sticks.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

Does the noble Baroness agree that one of the problems is that the boards are not sufficiently flexible in what they see as the requisite experience for serving on boards? For example, many women who hold senior positions in the voluntary and charitable sector are never considered because their experience is not considered relevant.

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is right, and boards need to take a wider view in terms of the experience and expertise that are there. I should like to quote one of the remaining FTSE 100 companies, Melrose, which still has an all-male board. It is,

“a leading British-based investment company specialising in the acquisition and performance improvement of underperforming businesses”.

There are no women on its board. How is it to ensure that companies are geared to the 21st century if it is so outdated in its own approach?

Health and Social Care Bill

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Baroness Northover

Tuesday 13th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen)]

The noble Lord has not moved the amendment.

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Lord may withdraw it in a moment.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

The noble Lord must move the amendment. Does the noble Lord wish to move the amendment?

Equality: Pay and Opportunities

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Baroness Northover

Thursday 8th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

My noble friend is absolutely right. Gender stereotyping in schools has tended in the past to direct girls way from the areas that she is talking about. The new National Careers Service will encourage girls and young women to challenge those stereotypes and encourage them to choose from the broadest possible career options. That includes providing good information, which girls, certainly from my experience, are very interested in, about the wide range of career opportunities that studying science and maths can lead to.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that, with the demographics of an ageing population, the provision of elder care and care for disabled people is just as important, if not more important, than the provision of childcare in enabling people to return or stay in the workforce? What provisions are the Government making to help people with caring responsibilities enter or remain in the workforce?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. We often debate how we can better develop the support of social care. I look forward to future debates this year on that area, as she knows. She is quite right that many people find themselves trapped in a situation where they are responsible both for the care of children and for elder care. That means that it is extremely important that our extension of the right to request flexible working for all employees—men and women, as we seek to share that responsibility—is taken forward. It is very important that this does not simply fall on women. At the moment, many men support their parents as well, so I hope that this is something that will move forward steadily.

Health and Social Care Bill

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Baroness Northover

Thursday 15th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I thank my noble friend Lady Cumberlege for that and I agree with her very much. We all wish, and have all sought, to drive up quality in the NHS. That is so often difficult to achieve but this is one of the means by which we hope to make that happen. No doubt some people will be made to feel uncomfortable by what the committee reports and says, and I hope that that will be the case.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

Perhaps the noble Baroness can take that a little further. For example, could HealthWatch, in the position envisaged for it by the Government as a committee of the CQC, join with a national campaigning charity—I am thinking of something such as National Voices—to put pressure on the CQC itself about how it was reporting patient outcomes?

[Baroness Northover]

I am sure that it could. If it felt that it was not managing to persuade the CQC or some other part of the NHS to do what it considered to be in the best interests of patients, then I am sure it would go to greater lengths to ensure that it got its message across. It is very important that we have a louder patient voice within the NHS, and this is one means of seeking to achieve that.

I return to some of the amendments that noble Lords have flagged up. This is a very important debate. I think we agree on where we wish to head and what we are seeking to achieve, but I hear noble Lords’ concerns about whether this is the right way of going about it. Noble Lords talk about an independent organisation and so on but that route was tried. This is another route for trying to make sure that there is a body close to an organisation which itself must have a major role in driving up quality. The synergies there are very important.

The question was raised of how local healthwatch is going to influence HealthWatch England. I heard what the noble Lord, Lord Harris, said about elections to HealthWatch England from local healthwatch. Clearly, as my noble friend Lady Cumberlege said, a great deal will depend on who is on these organisations nationally and locally, and it will be necessary to ensure that they are as strong as possible. The Secretary of State will determine how the membership is comprised through regulations and we will be discussing with a wide range of stakeholders the contents of those regulations. I can confirm that we will discuss the suggestions put forward by noble Lords. We had from the noble Lord, Lord Harris, an emphasis on election and a concern about that route from the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley. Both noble Lords might wish to feed in to how those regulations are taken forward so that we can best comprise HealthWatch England and local healthwatch.