Social Care

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

—any place! I look forward to that. We will be accompanied by officials. There is no doubt that the local authority-funded care sector is under considerable pressure at the moment and that the increase in the national living wage will add to that pressure. Those pressures are well recognised by the Government. To some extent they have been addressed by the better care fund. I think that pooling budgets between health and social care is a way forward but we have to await the out-turn of the spending round before we can be more definitive.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, might I express the hope that the meeting with the noble Baroness is not only productive but chaperoned properly? I ask my noble friend to take on board the very important point she made about travel time. It really is very wrong indeed that people should not be paid for travel time, especially in rural areas.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I thank my noble friend for that important observation, with which I agree completely.