NHS and Adult Social Care

Lord Patel Excerpts

Wednesday 5th April 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Patel]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the long-term sustainability of the National Health Service and adult social care.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord O'Shaughnessy) (Con)]

My Lords, the NHS and adult social care systems face unprecedented challenges due to an ageing, growing population and rising expectations. Making these systems sustainable for the long term depends on changing the way that services are delivered, with much greater emphasis on integration and keeping people well and independent for longer, as set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View and delivery plan.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

I was hoping that the Minister might thank us for the brilliant and well-written report published today. It is, following a great deal of difficulty, a consensus report from all sides of this House, including the Spiritual Benches, and I hope that it will be met with political consensus when the politicians have had time to digest it. It has identified some key threats to the long-term sustainability of health and social care, and I shall allude to just one of them: if we do not get a long-term settlement for social care funding, healthcare will continue to suffer. The report makes some good suggestions, including how individuals who can afford it can make a contribution to funding the long-term sustainability of social care. I hope that the Minister will take that on board when he devises the Green Paper on social care.

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I thank the noble Lord for that. I did not want to get ahead of myself but I thank him and all members of the committee for their work in putting together this document. I appreciate that it is an incredibly thorough and important piece of work, and I am also grateful to have received an embargoed copy of it yesterday. I will of course look carefully at all the recommendations and respond properly in due course. I am sure that we will also have an opportunity for a longer debate.

The noble Lord specifically asked about social care, and I completely agree with the priority attached to it in the report. He will know that the Government have committed more money in the short term to support social care, with £2 billion more having been announced at the Budget. But I know that his emphasis and the emphasis of his committee was on long-term reform. He is quite right to point out that the Green Paper is a very important opportunity to take a broad perspective and to put the system on a sustainable long-term footing.