Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

The truth is that progress is far too slow. This has been a scandal that has dragged on for many years. It is not a new problem, and helping people who are capable of living independent lives with support in the community to get out of institutional care is long overdue. Changing the culture is complex and difficult, but we are absolutely determined to sustain the pressure to ensure that change is achieved.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

22. I thank the Minister for those replies, but I understand that Sir Stephen Budd has been asked to lead a working group on these issues, reporting to NHS England. Will the Minister say a little more about the purpose of this group and its significance, in the light of the failure to meet the June deadline?

[Norman Lamb]

That is absolutely right, but Sir Simon Stevens took the view that it was essential to get the voluntary sector much more involved in the whole process. There are brilliant organisations such as Mencap and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation which are absolutely committed to achieving change, and the more we can work with them to achieve that change, the more likely we are to be successful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

7. What discussions he has had with NHS England on the future of the cancer drugs fund.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

We have committed to continuing the cancer drugs fund until the end of March 2016. We will consider carefully with NHS England how, in the longer term, we can support patients in accessing cancer drugs that could benefit them, at a cost that represents value to the NHS.

[Grahame M. Morris]

I thank the Minister for that answer, but is it not true that last year the cancer drugs fund was again underspent—funds that could be used to pay for advanced radio therapy? Every MP has received a letter from the England rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio asking for a meeting to highlight this problem. Why is the Secretary of State refusing to meet Mr Dallaglio, along with top cancer clinicians in Cancer Research UK?

[Norman Lamb]

First, if only it was underspent. More than 50,000 patients have now benefited from the fund, which is fully spent. More than £1 billion will have been committed in the full period of the fund. I have confirmation from the Secretary of State that he has already met Lawrence Dallaglio. I hope that will reassure the hon. Gentleman.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Tuesday 1st April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I remember well the meeting I had with my hon. Friend, other hon. Members and some families, and indeed I remember the testimonies those families gave. I will write to NHS England about his question and report back to him on the progress it is making.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

T2. How does the Minister respond to a warning from the UK’s top cancer doctors that the planned closure of 18 specialist centres for treating the victims of brain cancer is putting patients’ lives at risk by delaying treatment? It is clearly at odds with the Prime Minister’s assurance about improving access. Those top brain surgeons say that it is appalling. Will the Secretary of State stop it and engage in a proper and meaningful review?

NHS

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Grahame M. Morris]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I hope that her point will not be lost on Ministers. That is a significant factor.

The lack of adequate support in the community and in the home has stored up problems in the NHS, and I am convinced that they will be exacerbated by what is now happening. I know that we have done some good work on the Care Bill—there is good intent there—but I have real concerns about whether the resources necessary to make social care really work will be provided. We have seen attendances at hospital A and Es continuing to rise.

[Norman Lamb]

We have had this discussion on the Care Bill. The hon. Gentleman talks about the need for additional resource, but in Committee there was no indication from the Opposition that they would make a commitment to provide extra resources. Is he now saying that they would do so?

[Grahame M. Morris]

I cannot thank the Minister for that intervention. We have had many exchanges during the passage of the Care Bill, but that decision is above my pay grade. It would be for those on our Front Bench to determine the level of such resources. The purpose of this debate is to consider the A and E crisis. I would like to think that that commitment could be made, however, and if the Minister is asking me personally whether I support it, the answer is that I do. I believe we should also support free end-of-life care, which I know the Minister and many others on the Government Front Bench support. However, I must make some progress with my speech.

The lack of adequate support in the community has had an impact. It has contributed to increased attendances at A and E departments. I hope that Members will not have forgotten that, two years ago, the Prime Minister said:

“I refuse to go back to the days when people had to wait for hours on end to be seen in A&E”.

Well, I am afraid that we have gone back to those days. Sadly, by removing the social care needed for many elderly people to avoid unnecessary trips to hospital and to return home when their stay should be over, the Prime Minister is bringing back those days. I urge hon. Members to support the Opposition motion today.

Carers

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Thursday 20th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I completely agree. That is why the whole-family approach is so important. When dealing with the care needs of one individual, we need to look at the impact of those care needs on the whole family.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

rose—

[Norman Lamb]

I will give way, but I then need to reach the end of my speech.

[Grahame M. Morris]

I am grateful, and I compliment the Minister on his response. Does he recognise that, particularly in relation to young carers, it is quite right to place additional duties and responsibilities on local authorities, but local authorities must be given sufficient resources to discharge those additional duties and responsibilities?

[Norman Lamb]

I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman was present when I said that we need to be much smarter about how we use the money available. One of the things we need to do—I think there is a degree of agreement here—is integrate health and care. It is a crazy silo situation that we face. We are not using the money effectively. We could achieve much better support if we combined the disparate parts of the system to provide support shaped around the needs of the individual and their family.

The last spending round provided local government with a challenging settlement. That is why we decided to provide extra funding to help local authorities maintain access to services. However, local authorities ultimately have discretion over how they use their resources. Improving care and support is not simply a case of more money. Local authorities must look at how they can transform care through innovation and new ways of working. As I said earlier, collaboration with the voluntary sector is critical to this. Many local authorities are successfully integrating health and care services to improve quality, and we are developing the concept of “pioneers” to act as exemplars to support the rapid dissemination and uptake of lessons learned across the country.

Some hon. Members talked about the role of doctors and other health care workers. I agree that much more needs to be done. We can look at incentives such as the GP survey mentioned in the exchange that I had with the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Leicester West, and we have provided funding for the Royal College of General Practitioners and others to encourage GPs to think about the role of carers, but what we see from examples around the country, such as Changing Lives in Cornwall, is that once GPs start to collaborate and work as a partnership—as a team—with carers and the family, they begin to see that their burden is relieved because others can help them in the role that they have to perform. That is the essential change that it is so important to achieve.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam referred to the £400 million funding over four years for carers’ breaks. It is deeply frustrating that that has not been used as intended in all parts of the country. There are some areas, including Surrey and many others, which have done good, innovative things as a result of that. The Department asked the policy research unit in economic evaluation in health and care intervention to conduct a survey of a number of PCTs to gain their views on the benefits of NHS support for carers’ breaks. The findings will be published shortly and will help inform our understanding of what has happened. The early indications are that there may be more good things happening than we sometimes recognise, but clearly there have been significant gaps and much more needs to be done.

I appreciate that time is almost up. I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend and many others about the importance of work. I make the point again that providing help and assistance to enable people to remain in work is in employers own self-interest, as they maintain the skills in the work force while enabling that person to continue their caring responsibilities.

This has been a good debate. There has been some informed discussion and I am very grateful to hon. Members for their contributions.

Winterbourne View

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Monday 10th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I agree absolutely. One of the great scandals of this whole saga has been the extent to which local authorities and primary care trusts let people down. The father of a patient at Winterbourne View told me how the concerns he raised were ignored, how he watched as his son became more zombie-like because of the use of antipsychotic drugs and how he felt guilty himself—how shocking that a parent ends up feeling guilty through no fault of his own. He was powerless to do anything. It is shocking that public authorities let people down in that way. That is why I say that everyone in the system has to step up to the plate and recognise the need for a complete change of culture to recognise that everyone with learning disabilities has exactly the same rights as the rest of us.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his statement and hope that he will reflect on some of the questions posed by my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), who made a powerful case for private providers being subject to freedom of information requests—I draw his attention to early-day motion 773, which embodies that principle.

On the failings that brought about this terrible tragedy, the Care Quality Commission was overly concentrating on process rather than its main job of ensuring that the required standards were met and looking at quality and risk profiles. There was a big disconnect between the perceptions of carers and families and the views of the CQC. Fundamentally, unless we address the lack of resources, will we not see a series of these disasters in the future?

[Norman Lamb]

In the aftermath of Southern Cross, we have seen the need for much greater transparency in these large corporate bodies to ensure that we know exactly what their financial structures are like and where the risk exists. The hon. Gentleman mentioned funding. The great scandal is that we are spending vast sums of public money putting people at risk and into inappropriate care settings. Visiting places such as Tower Hamlets, we discover that the right care package for individuals—most often, supported living in their own community—is much cheaper and gives them a quality of life they never experienced in these institutions. This is not about money, therefore, but about the system stepping up to the plate and ensuring that individuals are respected in their own right.

Winterbourne View

Debate between Grahame Morris and Norman Lamb

Tuesday 30th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I tend to the view that we have had too many changes of regulator over a number of years, and that continuity would be a good thing. An assessment of the CQC earlier this year indicated that it was on the right track. I have met the new chief executive and am reassured by the plans he has in place. It is seductive to believe always that it is an attractive proposition to abolish an organisation and set up a new one, but is there any more chance that a new organisation will be better? Let us therefore make the CQC work properly.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

I welcome the Minister’s response—he is sincere in his desire to address these issues. Does he recognise the important role of whistleblowers? Does he have any information on concerns raised by whistleblowers in respect of the alternative provision before Winterbourne View patients were transferred?

[Norman Lamb]

The role of whistleblowers is central. Importantly, the Government have funded a whistleblowing helpline, which is available to any worker in the care sector—it covers all care homes. It is important that any worker at any stage feels they can raise their concerns with the relevant authorities so that they are properly investigated. What happened with the whistleblower at Winterbourne View was not acceptable, because their concerns were not taken up effectively.