Reform of Social Care

Catherine McKinnell Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. At the heart of this, we know that additional resources have to be brought to bear and that given the financial circumstances we face, we also know that this will have to be a partnership between taxpayers, families and individuals—it cannot simply be handing costs over to the state. Although Andrew Dilnot makes no specific recommendations about how to pay for his proposals, he is very clear that even if it were to be through a tax mechanism, he believes it should come from an existing tax and should bear particularly on the same groups of older people rather than be a further intergenerational transfer from working age adults. What that immediately points to is the necessity of engaging fully with some of the stakeholder groups such as Age UK and others and of engaging properly with the public so that before we embark on this major reform, they can feel confident that they understand those trade-offs and precisely how these costs are to be met.

[Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)]

The increased availability of care at home is to be welcomed, but it also poses increased challenges for safeguarding vulnerable adults. Given that personal budgets can be spent on unregistered and therefore unregulated care providers, what steps will the Secretary of State take to ensure that taxpayers money can be spent only on good quality and safe care provision where the rights of care workers are also fully respected?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady makes a number of important points. As the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam, made clear recently, one purpose of legislation in due course will be to put the safeguarding on a statutory basis, which is important. Working with the CQC, we must ensure that in domiciliary care as well as in residential care homes, mechanisms are in place that enable us to assess the quality of care and get feedback from residents. The social care outcomes framework must be developed in a way that captures an understanding of the experience of care users, their families and supporters.