National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No. 2) Regulations 2013
Debate between Baroness Young of Old Scone and Lord Warner(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Warner
It is not a separate issue because there is considerable overlap between those who are providing adult social care from outside the public sector and those who operate in the NHS market. They are very often the same providers. It is that market in social care that in this country has built and run a whole nursing home sector because the NHS turned its back on nursing home provision more than 30 years ago. It turned its back on providing a pattern of services that might have been relevant to today’s needs. Alongside the NHS we have a market-driven service—and very soon we shall probably be discussing something called the care and support Bill, which I and a number of noble Lords have been considering on the Joint Committee. The bad news for some is that within that legislation are some provisions for market-making, and that is the term that was being used in adult social care. Even as we speak, the Local Government Association and the Department of Health are enhancing the skills of local government in market-making in this area. However, the NHS does not seem to want to play in that game. It does not seem to want to pursue—
Baroness Young of Old Scone
I am afraid I cannot resist interrupting. Does the noble Lord’s pride in the social care market extend to the number of fairly large companies that have either almost gone bust or indeed have gone bust in the social care market in the past 12 months, or indeed to the failure of a considerable proportion of the social care market to deliver standards that are acceptable to the Care Quality Commission? I wonder if the social care competitive market is actually delivering what he wants it to deliver.
Lord Warner
I do not think anybody in the private nursing home and residential care market has achieved the dizzy heights of Mid Staffordshire trust in the way they looked after patients.