Care Bill [Lords]

Debate between Hazel Blears and Tony Baldry

Monday 10th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

I am not quite sure who to be bad-tempered with. As the House knows, I am not characteristically bad-tempered, but I think my bad temper should probably be directed at the usual channels, given that the timetable motion went through on the nod. We have to deal with 21 new clauses and 20 amendments on an important Bill in two hours, which by my calculation allows three minutes per clause or amendment. The hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) spoke perfectly reasonably, given the number of amendments that have been tabled, but it is impossible to do justice to all this in two hours. The usual channels should bear in mind that some of us feel rather bad-tempered about the time provision. These things, as we all know, are agreed between the usual channels; it is not one side or the other that is responsible.

I wish to speak briefly about new clause 3. The Bill does fantastic things for carers, and I think it would be a real tragedy if, once the Bill completes its passage, carers or their advocates felt that it was a missed opportunity. I shall not repeat what my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow) said. The Minister will doubtless say that clause 6 and the duty to co-operate deal with this point. Clearly, the duty to co-operate is very important for local authorities and the NHS. In the past, GPs may not have sought to identify carers as well as they could because they did not think there was much they could do for them. Now they will be able to ensure that there is a carer’s assessment. If the Minister intends to resist new clause 3, could he seek to ensure that we have statutory guidance for the NHS on the services that it should provide for carers?

I fully understand that for those aged over 75 the aim will be to have named clinicians, and those clinicians should, as part of their duty, ensure that carers are identified, but of course many carers, including young carers, are under the age of 75. It would be a real pity if the Bill missed this opportunity on carers. If we could have some statutory guidance on what the Minister, the Department and all of us expect the NHS to do to identify carers, we can then have a quick rendition of the “Hallelujah Chorus” and I will not be so grumpy.

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

I shall do my best not to be grumpy and to be as quick as the right hon. Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry). I wish to speak in support of new clauses 9 and 19. New clause 9 has support across the breadth of organisations from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to the Care and Support Alliance. It makes fundamental good sense, when setting up a new system, to have the ability to have an annual report about whether there is sufficient money in the system. Whichever Government are in charge, we need to know that. We are in danger of willing the ends but not the means for social care, and we have to make sure that this issue is kept under close review.

We all support the two fundamental principles of the Bill, which are about promoting individual well-being and moving towards a more preventive system. Those are commendable and high ideals, but if we do not have the funding in the system to be able to deliver them, the Bill will not achieve the potential that we all know is there.

I spoke on Second Reading about transformation, and I look forward to welcoming the Minister to Salford on Wednesday to show him how we are transforming the system for dementia care in the city by bringing together £97 million of our total health and social care budgets to try to squeeze every bit of impact out of every last penny to give better care for people with dementia. I hope he will be impressed, but more than that I hope he will help us to do this with his better care fund. That fund should be used for the transformation of our services at a time of austerity when we need more money in the system.

The second part of the new clause is about having a five-yearly review of eligibility criteria, which is essential—to be frank, I would like to see that happen more often than every five years. Eligibility criteria are now set at “substantial” instead of “moderate”, which means that in Salford 1,000 fewer families are being helped, and the heartache and misery that that causes are enormous. It also goes against the second fundamental principle of the Bill. If we do not have eligibility criteria at the right level, how can we transform the system to be preventive? If we only pick up people when they are in crisis, they are escalated into the acute sector, which costs a fortune. If we invest in lower level community-based interventions by social enterprises and voluntary groups, we can save money in the acute sector.

Dementia

Debate between Hazel Blears and Tony Baldry

Thursday 10th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

I am grateful for your guidance, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow). In my capacity as vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on dementia—the right hon. Gentleman elevated me in his speech; our group is incredibly well led by Baroness Sally Greengross—I want to pay tribute to his work in this field. I appreciated his personal drive on this issue; it has made a big difference. I should like to thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating the time for this debate. I should also like to thank all the Members here today. This is a fantastically good turn-out for a one-line Whip, Back-Bench business debate on a Thursday afternoon, and it indicates just how deeply people feel about this issue. The hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch) has been a tremendous help on the all-party group, and I am delighted to be vice-chair alongside her. Her personal drive and commitment have made a big difference.

Nearly 1 million people will be living with dementia by 2020, and the issue now touches the lives of virtually every family in Britain. It is a big issue for the NHS, but it is also a big issue for all the public services. I entirely endorse the right hon. Gentleman’s point that we have to join up the services right across Whitehall if we are going to make the progress that we need to make.

Ten years ago, when I was a Health Minister, it is fair to say that dementia was not at the top of the agenda for Ministers or for the NHS. As ever, there were more pressing issues, such as cancer, heart disease, waiting lists, maternity services—the list goes on. The voices raising the issue of dementia, and of care for older people more generally, were not heard as clearly then as, thankfully, they are today. This is now a massive challenge facing all of us, and I believe that increasing pressure from the public has helped to focus the minds of politicians and practitioners on what can and should be done to support those with dementia and, crucially, the people who care for them.

I also want to depart from normal practice and pay a warm tribute to the Prime Minister. He has put his personal weight behind this issue, and I know from having been a Minister that having the Prime Minister behind a project can give it momentum and get the system moving. It can provide a kick-start and a catalyst. I want to say a genuine thank you to the Prime Minister on this issue. That does not mean that there is not much more to do, and there are certainly concerns about ongoing funding issues, but having the Prime Minister say, “This is my challenge; I am behind it” will get things moving in the system.

Like most people, I got involved in this issue because someone I love has dementia. It is my mum. Over the past five years, I have seen and experienced the impact of that on her and on my dad, who, at the age of 83, is still her full-time carer. I want to raise three issues today. I want to talk about diagnosis, support in the community and the research challenge that we face.

My mum’s diagnosis was absolutely appalling. She had been having problems with her memory for about a year and a half and, like many people, she thought that it was just because she was getting older that she could not remember day-to-day details. However, when she could not remember the day of the week and when she started constantly to repeat herself, we as a family thought that she would benefit from a bit of expert advice.

Mum’s GP was not bad. He referred her to the mental health team for older people. She was just 70 at the time. What happened after that, however, was absolutely terrible. My mum and dad received a visit from a local psychiatrist whom they had never met before. She sat herself down on the settee without any formalities and proceeded to ask my mum 10 questions about the day, the date and who the Prime Minister was—I can think of lots of people who would not have known who the Prime Minister was—and after just a few minutes, announced to my mum and dad that it was very clear that my mum had Alzheimer’s. As Members can imagine, they were stunned and upset. They had no idea what that meant for them or what the future might hold. They were frightened and bewildered.

That was just the kind of brutal diagnosis that we used to hear about in relation to cancer sufferers, but here it was happening to the people I love. Suffice it to say that, after a formal complaint, we did not see that psychiatrist again, but the incident brought home to me how many people in those circumstances are subject to such hurtful and damaging insensitivity. Better dementia diagnosis has to be a priority. Yes, this is about earlier diagnosis, but it is also about sensitivity, understanding and finding the right circumstances in which to make a diagnosis that will fundamentally affect people’s lives.

Diagnosis rates in this country are low and incredibly varied. In general, just over 40% of people with dementia receive a formal diagnosis. The lowest rate is 26%, in Dorset, and the highest is nearly 70%, in Belfast. There must be a reason for such a dramatic variation. We have made little progress in recent years towards driving up diagnosis rates, yet diagnosis is key, because without it a person cannot gain access to the support services and the help that they need.

[Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

Is it not part of the problem that many GPs are anxious not to diagnose dementia because they feel frustrated that they do not know what to do following such a diagnosis? They do not know what to offer the patient, and there seems to be an inclination to avoid that frustration by not making a diagnosis of dementia at all.

[Hazel Blears]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. In fact, the recent all-party group inquiry into diagnosis revealed exactly that situation, which is a real concern. Many GPs are uncomfortable about making a diagnosis of dementia. They sometimes feel that such a diagnosis is pointless if the necessary drug treatments or wraparound care and support services are not available. Increasing the confidence of GPs at that point to enable them to make a diagnosis is of fundamental importance.

The figures on diagnosis are quite stunning. Only half the GPs questioned said that they had sufficient training in this area, and a third of them believed that a lack of access to drug treatments was a barrier to early diagnosis. Almost a third were not confident about making a diagnosis of dementia, and only a third felt that they had had enough training to go through the diagnosis process. Unless we tackle that, we will not get the increase in diagnosis that the Prime Minister and all of us want.