Reform of Social Care

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. This is very much about ensuring that, at the same time as engaging on the palliative care report, we build pilots that will enable us to see how the proposals would work in a number of places across the country. I know that some areas of the country are ready and willing to do that. The essence of what we are doing is to be increasingly clear about what quality services for those at the end of their lives look like, and to be sure that we can integrate those services by developing a system of per-patient funding. That would enable the providers to work together within the funding framework, without the current constraints and demarcations, and without the silo system that currently divides palliative care and end-of-life care services in a way that makes the system immensely confusing and difficult for people at the end of their lives. This is a real opportunity that has been fashioned by Tom Hughes-Hallett and Alan Craft’s report.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Funding for care is clearly a hugely important issue, but so is the quality of the care that older people receive. The parliamentary ombudsman and even the Financial Times have reported the need for greater respect and dignity for those receiving care. When will the Secretary of State return to the House and inform us in detail of the standards of care that older people can expect?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady will know that we are continuously seeking to improve the standards of care that older people receive, and, in so doing, we sometimes have to tackle what are clearly serious abuses. In the wake of the Winterbourne View events, for example, we will bring forward a report to Parliament on standards and the means by which they are to be met. With regard to hospital care, it was I who asked the Care Quality Commission to undertake specific unannounced nurse-led inspections to look at dignity and nutrition. We will work continuously to ensure that we deliver the standards of care that people have a right to expect.