Queen’s Speech

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, in my contribution to the humble Address to the gracious Speech I will focus on health and social care, mainly the latter, and some of the overlapping and invisible problems facing the most vulnerable.

There was much debate during the general election about the funding of our NHS. The Government’s additional funding, announced earlier in the spring, is vital but, as many people, not just politicians, have expressed, it is just not enough. I am proud that my party was brave enough to suggest we should have one penny on income tax for health and social care. I also applaud Labour’s very specific proposals to provide the necessary funding for health and social care. Over recent weeks, with some of the crises and emergencies that we have faced, we have rightly praised the response by the emergency NHS workers, but I praise in particular the invisible unsung heroes who make the NHS, our social care and many people’s lives work without our being aware of it.

Reforming the NHS is vital, but to do so at a time when funding is not just scarce but in some areas—mental health, primary care and for those with long-term conditions—in total crisis sets up these reforms to fail. I congratulate the 50 charities that have recently come together to form the Disabled Children’s Partnership. It has just launched its thought-provoking campaign, the Secret Life of Us. It is those disabled children on whom I want to focus my remarks. Nine out of 10 of the parents surveyed by those charities say that the needs of their disabled children would not be met if they, the parents, could not care for them, and only 10% of the families believe that health and social care services in their area meet the needs of their disabled child. More than four in five of parents of a disabled child face problems accessing the services they need, and over half of them see that this has a negative impact on their child’s health, well-being and ability to make friends. Three-quarters of parents with a disabled child have personally experienced mental health issues, compared with just one in five in the general population.

One example very close to my heart at the moment illustrates all these points and more. I live on the same road as Nascot Lawn, an outstanding facility run by the NHS for disabled children with extremely complex needs. It is in Hertfordshire but it is so good that it is used by other areas as well. Friends of ours have survived—I choose my words carefully—because of the respite care offered by Nascot Lawn. You can get help there only if your child requires hourly attention night and day and their medical needs are complex. They may have tracheotomies, colostomies or regular seizures, or may require feeding by IV tube directly into their stomachs. These children are so sick that they cannot even go to children’s hospices for care. One mum said on television the other day that she could not leave her child on the ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital because that specialist hospital does not have the staffing levels needed to look after her child.

The local CCG has just announced that it will close Nascot Lawn because its work is discretionary. Given that respite and other care provided by Nascot Lawn is specified in most of the children’s education and healthcare plans, and their continuing care plans, some of us think that the CCG has got that wrong. Accountants have decided this without any reference to any of the children’s individual cases.

I am in awe of the commitment, love and dedication of the parents and families of these children. Unless you have seen it first-hand, you cannot understand what living with children this sick and disabled is like. Now imagine if that occasional lifeline is arbitrarily removed by the NHS. Parents say, and I am sure they are right, that it is likely to cost the NHS much more money in the longer run. I also believe that it breaches their child’s rights and, what is more, their rights as carers, working all day and all night, and nursing their children all their lives.

There is something else here, too. A nation’s commitment to its people should be judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable. These children represent the most vulnerable and they are easy targets because they are invisible. My question to the Minister is: will he please meet me and some of the parents involved to discuss why on earth this sort of care could be deemed discretionary?

My noble friend Lady Jolly raised the crisis in social care as a result of employment tribunals and sleep-in shifts. I echo her concerns and agree that that funding must be found to help this problem, but I also want to highlight a further problem. There are now more than 108,000 disabled people with care needs who receive no social care support at all. This is just not acceptable, and the practical problem seems to be that the better care fund is for those who are in hospital and come out, and completely misses out those people living in the community who require long-term continuing care. I ask the Minister: when will there be extra funds for this group?

In conclusion, the Government propose a new consultation on social care. We do not need a new consultation on social care; we need an update on the Dilnot commission and for that to be introduced as soon as possible.