Social Care Services

Emma Reynolds Excerpts

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Westminster Hall

[Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Brady.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) on securing this debate on an incredibly important issue. It is a great cause for celebration that people now live longer, but it brings new challenges. Our society—and our Government—should be judged on how we look after our most vulnerable people, and I want to focus my contribution on the care of the group of people who tend to be the most vulnerable: the elderly.

My hon. Friend said that there is a large, sustained increase in the percentage of people needing long-term care, and the projection is that the figure will continue to rise. As has been pointed out, the standards of care in care homes vary greatly, not only across the country but within regions and sometimes within cities—there is even variation across my constituency of Wolverhampton North East. My grandma is in a great care home in neighbouring Staffordshire, which provides wonderful care, and I want to pay tribute to the care workers there, and to those across the country in good care homes. We know, however, that that is more the exception than the rule.

I am very concerned about the drop in the number of inspections of care homes by the Care Quality Commission. I echo the questions asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) about how the Government can guarantee that care home standards across the country are at least good—not poor—and how they can stop those who seem to want to make a quick buck out of the industry and ensure that care home staff are given basic protection rights and paid properly.

I want to turn to the pressing issue of the financing of care, which the previous Labour Government tried to deal with perhaps a little too late. Thousands of people across the country have to sell their homes to fund long-term care, and the cross-party talks regrettably broke down before the general election, with the Conservatives preferring to score political points and publish posters about a “death tax” rather than engage seriously with this most important issue. However, I congratulate the Liberal Democrats, in particular their then health spokesperson, the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), who stayed in the talks and was willing to reach some kind of consensus.

I know that the Minister will not want to answer some of my questions because the Government are awaiting the outcome of the Dilnot commission, but I urge him to consider the shortcomings of a voluntary contribution model. Experts in the insurance industry have pointed out that people are unlikely to take out insurance 30 years before they might need the care, and international evidence suggests that such a system is unworkable. France has the largest voluntary insurance market for long-term care but there is only a 15% take-up, so if the Government go for that option, which was in the Conservative manifesto—I am waiting to see what the coalition will do—it is almost as good as doing nothing. If we introduced the model and people did not take up the care, we might as well have done nothing at all.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North said in his closing remarks that this is a matter for generations to come, and it is most pressing that we have a system that enables the Government to provide care for the elderly in the years to come. I said at the start of my speech that this is a great cause for celebration, but it brings a new challenge, and I urge the Minister to consider the value of making this a cross-party issue and ensuring cross-party consensus on the financing of long-term care for the elderly.