Summer Adjournment

Gary Streeter Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gary Streeter (South West Devon) (Con)]

Before the House rises for the summer recess, I would like to draw attention to the importance of speech therapy and communication aids for profoundly disabled young people, and to raise a query about care home costs.

I am privileged to have in my constituency, in Ivybridge, the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust, which for over 220 years has provided education, therapy, care and respite for children and young people with profound physical disabilities. It is a genuine centre of excellence and has been rated as outstanding by Ofsted since 2006. A few weeks ago, I attended one of its special assemblies, which was designed to promote a greater understanding of the importance of electronic communication aids for people who have no other way of communicating. A number of dignitaries and members of the press were invited, along with parents and friends of the students.

During the time together at the assembly, we were given a presentation by a young man called Ben, whose sole method of communicating is by pushing a yellow button with his cheek to select certain words and phrases from his computer. In a very powerful presentation lasting about 15 minutes, he sat in his wheelchair in front of the whole assembly and told us, with a large screen behind him to illustrate his computerised words, about his family, his likes and dislikes; about his life. He told us that when we spoke to him we should look at him and not at his carer, and that when we asked him a question we should be patient when waiting for his response. I will never forget those words of guidance.

Ben did something else: he told us a joke—in front of all those people, using just his cheek, his yellow button, and his computer. I was so impressed that I promised him that I would share it with the House of Commons, and here it is: “I say, I say, I say, why did the fish blush?” “I don’t know,” came the reply, “Why did the fish blush?” “Because he saw the sea weed!” As you can imagine, the assembly dissolved into laughter. I am sure the House agrees that that would be a pretty good joke at any time, in any place, but for it to be delivered by a fine young man facing so many challenges, in a school assembly, with dignitaries and press present, was quite remarkable. I went up to him afterwards and told him that his presentation was awesome. I pay tribute to Ben, to his family and to his carers. I acknowledge the wonderful work done by Nicola Blundell, the speech therapist at the school, and her team, and of course to Dame Hannah Rogers Trust itself for so many years of astonishing service and dedication.

I intend to return to my second issue, which relates to the cost of residential and nursing care, in the autumn, but I wish to put down a marker at this early stage. It was recently drawn to my attention that local authorities are operating one set of charges for residential homes run by themselves and another, much lower, set for care homes run in the independent sector. I have taken these issues up with councils in my area and wish to share my findings with the House. In one local authority area, the going rate for a person entering one of its council-run care homes is £630 per week, while in independent homes in the same area the going rate is £429 per week—a differential of £200 per person per week. A similar disparity appears in neighbouring authorities.

My immediate reaction was to wonder why it is possible to have such a discrepancy. I have visited many care homes in the private sector and the public sector over the years, as we all have, and I would certainly not say that local authority care homes are necessarily superior. I took up the discrepancy with the council and received an interesting response:

“the £630 per week cost of in house services includes nationally agreed terms and conditions for local authority employees to include pensions, absenteeism, sickness and leave entitlements. This makes it difficult to compare rates with the independent sector.”

I do not agree with that. The Minister needs to look into this—no doubt he can do so in his thorough review following the Dilnot report on the costs of residential care—as it is something that possibly needs to be changed.