Care Homes

Debate between Norman Lamb and Glyn Davies

Thursday 1st May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

First, I applaud the hon. Lady for going to those care homes and seeing for herself what is going on in response to Care Quality Commission reports. We should all be willing to do that. I have already said that the CQC has been given extra funding, and we are completely committed to ensuring that it has the capacity to do its job properly and substantially increase the number of apprentices in that sector. As she says, proper training is vital to ensure a properly trained work force.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

Does the Minister agree that the most effective way to raise standards and ensure a culture of compassion and sympathetic care in a full range of care settings is by strengthening corporate responsibility? We need public opprobrium to be aimed at the owners and directors of those companies so that they are persuaded to introduce systems such as lay visitor or advocacy schemes within those care settings, to ensure that examples of this sort do not happen.

[Norman Lamb]

My hon. Friend is right. That is why the Government have taken steps to ensure that the Care Quality Commission can prosecute when there are examples of the new fundamental standards of care we are introducing being breached. In future, no one will be able to get away with allowing poor standards of care in their workplace. We will take action through prosecution and the fit-and-proper-person test to drive up standards.

Dementia Care and Services

Debate between Norman Lamb and Glyn Davies

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I am delighted by that intervention, because it gives me the opportunity to say something very quickly about the initiative being taken by the Alzheimer’s Society. If someone applies to be a dementia friend, they can go along to an hour-long session on understanding dementia better. It is very illuminating to go through that process. We got the initial idea from Japan, where it has gathered enormous momentum. If we can get a million people across society who better understand dementia, it could have an enormously powerful impact by making our communities more dementia-friendly and understanding and giving people with dementia a better life. I would therefore encourage my hon. Friend to become a dementia friend.

The right hon. Member for Salford and Eccles (Hazel Blears) talked about her constituency office. I will accept the challenge she laid down. I absolutely accept the case she makes. We are all serving the public, and it is critical that we make our own facilities friendly for people with dementia and their carers. My constituency office staff do not know this yet, but I will encourage them to go through this process, as all right hon. and hon. Members should.

I was struck by the constituency examples that my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet and Rothwell gave. He mentioned Paul Mancey of Orchard Care Homes, which is ensuring that people entering care homes get proper care and support and that their particular needs are met, and the Springfield Healthcare initiative.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for allowing me to intervene on an issue that, usually because of personal experience, is close to our hearts. He speaks of the importance of care homes, understanding dementia and caring for sufferers properly, but does he agree that the best treatment is care in the home of the person suffering from dementia? In my experience, a change in circumstances advances dementia faster than anything else. By far and away the best way to treat people suffering from dementia is to make it Government policy to support people to stay in their own homes.

[Norman Lamb]

I broadly agree with my hon. Friend. The most important thing is that the care and support should always be right for the individual. Whatever they need they should be provided with. I recently visited the most amazing GP surgery in Gnosall, Staffordshire, which has managed—this demonstrates a point that my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet and Rothwell made about the variability of dementia diagnosis rates—to achieve diagnosis rates of close to 100%. That demonstrates what is possible. Most of the diagnosing is done in the community within primary care without referral to a memory clinic. What they have found is that by getting early diagnosis and then having very good community follow-up and support—the general practice is central to that—people are staying in their own homes and maintaining a good life for far longer and admissions to care homes and nursing homes are significantly reduced. That demonstrates what is possible and confirms the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) made.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Norman Lamb and Glyn Davies

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

Absolutely. I offer my condolences to the family of Sophie. The remarkable selfless fundraising done by such families does much to provide care for others and that will be a remarkable legacy for a fine young girl.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

11. What discussions he has had with NHS hospital trusts on taking account of the interests of patients in Wales who depend on hospitals in England.

Winterbourne View

Debate between Norman Lamb and Glyn Davies

Monday 10th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I thank the right hon. Lady for that. She is absolutely right in what she says about institutional care. I keep mentioning Tower Hamlets, as it was rather inspirational to visit and see how things are done there. I was told that Tower Hamlets has one of the lowest rates of children going into care because of the support for families that it provides, preventing that from ever being necessary.

As for the right hon. Lady’s second point, she is absolutely right: this is moment that demands a change of culture, not just in the health and care system but in society as a whole. There must be a change in all our attitudes. We will make progress only if we understand the fundamental point that someone with learning disabilities has exactly the same rights as anyone else, and should be treated with dignity and respect.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

We are for ever reading in reports such as this about poor behaviour in social care. In the last year or so, we have had Southern Cross and then Winterbourne View, which is probably the most shocking example of all. We greatly welcome the measures that the Minister has announced, but can he tell us what arrangements exist to enable us to share the knowledge that we have gained and the lessons that we are learning with the Welsh Government? I am sure that there are very good examples that we can pass over Offa’s Dyke, and that Wales has very good examples from which we can learn.

[Norman Lamb]

I know that some people from Wales were placed in Winterbourne View. This issue is important and relevant to Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. I would encourage officials of the devolved Administrations and the United Kingdom Government to liaise closely in order to ensure that the lessons that we are learning here can be applied elsewhere, and that good lessons from Wales and elsewhere can be learned in England.