Business of the House

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

That sounds an ambitious target. The question of the appointment of peers to another place is way above my pay grade, but I suggest that the hon. Gentleman should not believe absolutely everything he reads in the press.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

Caring is a noble vocation but there are too few opportunities for training. May we have a debate on the establishment of carers’ academies, such as the one proposed in South Staffordshire at Rodbaston, to be run between the college there and South Staffordshire housing association?

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. We want to raise the qualifications of those who are caring and he might have seen a number of recent instances of bad quality care and untrained practitioners. I would welcome the initiative he has just mentioned. I will mention it to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health—and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if it is an academy—and see whether we can make progress down that path.