Winterbourne View Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Clinton-Davis
Main Page: Lord Clinton-Davis (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Clinton-Davis's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(11 years, 9 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, the commissioning of this type of care will, in the future, be the joint responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and local authorities. We are encouraging as much close co-operation as possible at a local level. The noble Viscount will know that across-government funding is tight. However, we as a Government took the decision to protect the health budget, which is in fact rising in real terms every year of this Parliament. That does not reduce the pressure placed on the budget, because historically the pressures on the health budget have been higher than the rate of inflation; nevertheless, in protecting the health budget, we are also supporting local authorities to the tune of more than £7 billion over the spending review period to ensure that their social care services are not seriously depleted or damaged. It would be idle of me to say that there is no problem, but the funding available should be enough to support these services over the medium term.
This is not a simple matter. Does the Minister agree that an interim report will not provide all the answers and that this matter ought to be kept under constant review by Parliament in due course?