Carers

Baroness Pitkeathley Excerpts

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have for improving the lives of carers.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare an interest as vice-president of Carers UK.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, we understand the urgency of reforming both the NHS and the social care system to provide more control to individuals and their carers. The coalition agreement makes it clear that we will,

“extend … personal budgets to give people and their carers more control … We will use direct payments to carers and better community-based provision to improve access to respite care”,

and we will,

“extend the right to request flexible working to all employees”,

including carers.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that helpful reply. In national Carers Week, I am sure that millions of carers will be glad to hear of the Government’s commitment to support all that carers do. In their national carers strategy published in 2007, the previous Government pledged that no carer would be in financial hardship by 2018. Are the coalition Government planning to honour that pledge?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Baroness for all that she has done over the years to highlight the work of carers and their needs—indeed, the Government are very pleased to support Carers Week. We are entirely supportive of the ambitions set out in the previous Government’s strategy. We naturally need to focus on delivering the things that will have the greatest impact on improving carers’ lives. I think that there will be three strands to that. The first is to make sure that carers are able to stay in work if they wish to. The second is to help carers who wish to get back into work to return to employment—Jobcentre Plus has in train a number of initiatives in that regard. The third is the safety net of benefits and we will review the benefits system in a way that encourages, among other things, fairness.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Baroness Pitkeathley Excerpts

Wednesday 9th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I fully agree with my noble friend. We have asked the Appointments Commission to set out proposals for a revised person specification for chairs and non-executive directors to ensure that it is aligned with the current priorities and principles of the NHS. We want to continue to deliver high-calibre non-executives, in particular, who are needed to meet the challenges ahead. The general point raised by my noble friend is well made and we shall certainly take it forward.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence. Will the Minister confirm what I think was the thrust of the Statement, which was that regulation and regulatory activities should always be about patient safety and not about maintenance or promotion of professionals? As the strong and welcome implication of the Statement is about putting patients at the centre, does he expect the inquiry to give any indication as to how patients should be supported in bringing forward their concerns?

[Earl Howe]

On the last point, we are doing quite a lot of work in the department to ensure that patients are supported in an appropriate fashion in their dealings with the health service. Our plans for what we hope to call “health watch” will flesh out that point. I agree that safety lies at the heart of the quality agenda, which was commenced in earnest by the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, when he was a Minister. I have the privilege of being responsible for that agenda, which is being continued with urgency. We are committed to developing the role of the Care Quality Commission to make it a more effective regulator of health services in England. We will bring forward proposals that will focus on the outcomes of the care experienced by patients. The Care Quality Commission will be intimately involved in that.