Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right to remind us of the challenge of having people in the right place, rather than in hospital when they do not need to be there. We have already taken action, so I am pleased to be able to reassure him that, while the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, will look at long-term solutions for social care, she will present a report within a year from her commencement, which will add to the actions that we have already taken.

The noble Lord talked about unpaid carers—and I certainly share the respect that he holds for unpaid carers, so I am very pleased that we have given the biggest boost in income to family carers through eligibility for the carer’s allowance. That has meant an additional —on average, of course—£2,300 a year. That is the biggest boost since carer’s allowance was introduced in the 1970s. We are also legislating for a fair pay agreement, for the first time ever, which will help to tackle the number of vacancies, now standing at 131,000. There will be immediate action, because discharge requires being able to be in the right environment, which might be home but it might need an adaptation. Through the disabled facilities grant there will be a further 7,800 adaptations to homes both this year and next year. So we have taken the immediate action—and, yes, there is a lot more to do.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister has just reiterated what the Statement said—that one of the key levers for easing winter pressures is NHS reform, particularly moving some hospital services into the community, which could deal with some of the issues raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, including X-rays, scans, tests and so on. Does she agree that this will require close collaboration between NHS trusts, hospital trusts, local authorities, ICBs and, sometimes, the private sector? Will she work with Ministers in other departments, not only to remove any obstacles there might be to this but to actively encourage it to happen at the local level? By the way, there are some good examples in South Yorkshire of this happening, and proposals for it to happen.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is quite right to highlight the good examples in South Yorkshire. There are good examples across the country and one of our challenges, as the Secretary of State has said, is taking the best to the rest. This is a very good example of that. I certainly agree with her observations. This requires joined-up working locally and nationally, which is why we work closely with other departments in both the immediate term and the longer term as we seek to reform health and social care.