Southern Cross Care Homes Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Ann Clwyd
Main Page: Ann Clwyd (Labour - Cynon Valley)Department Debates - View all Ann Clwyd's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(13 years, 4 months ago)
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Paul Burstow
What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is that there is not a question of funding these homes, because they are not insolvent. The business is not going into administration—it is going through a restructuring—so there is no request for funds and there is no need for those funds in order for local authorities to be able to carry out their current legal duties.
Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab)
I do not know whether the Minister heard the excellent Radio 4 programme “You and Yours” earlier this week, which included a long discussion on care homes and care in the community. The programme gave the impression that more care home problems are in the pipeline and that we are dealing with Southern Cross today, but several others are in a similar situation. Can he give us any assurances on that point? Will he also examine care provision in the community, because many care companies also provide that service to local authorities and it would be an absolute catastrophe if the same thing were to happen to care in the community?
Paul Burstow
It is for those very reasons that this Government last year set out a vision of reform of social care based on greater personal control and personalisation of the services that people need to sustain them in the community. It is also why we have committed to produce a White Paper that will focus on issues of quality and regulation, and that will bring together the other issues associated with how we reform the laws in this country, which have evolved in a piecemeal fashion over the past 60 years and which make the system opaque and hard to navigate. Those are the commitments that we have entered into and will continue to prosecute.