Older People's Rights Commissioner (Hansard, 17 June 2003)

§ David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire)

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for the establishment of an older people's rights commissioner to promote and protect the human rights of older people, to make provision in respect of the recognition of such rights by public and private bodies, to assist older people in respect of such rights, to make provision for the powers and duties of the commissioner and for related purposes. There are 11 million people over pension age in the United Kingdom, including some 2.5 million people over the age of 80. While many older people live happy and fulfilling lives, some, sadly, face the most appalling abuses of their basic rights as human beings. It is for those people that I am advocating an older people's rights commissioner. The commissioner would have a broad remit to tackle the abuse of older people's rights wherever it occurred, and would ensure that older people were afforded the same rights as younger people in every aspect of life, from education and employment to transport and trade. In short, the commissioner would be a powerful advocate for the rights of older people, bringing to an end the tacit acceptance of abuse and neglect of those rights, which has become our national shame.

The area of health and social care illustrates most starkly the need for a commissioner. The gross breaches of older people's rights that occur in this field were laid bare in the BBC series "Britain's Secret Shame". Those recent programmes told sorry tales of cruelty and the exploitation of vulnerable older people who were in need of loving and sensitive care. The programme's title said it all: the picture that it painted was shameful. This problem has also remained largely secret, hidden from our view as a nation. But it should not remain secret any longer.

The programmes told the stories of older people whose treatment ranged from the careless and heartless to the systematically sadistic, and illustrated a culture of subtle and insidious neglect of the fundamental rights of older people as human beings. Let us take the case of Violet Townsend—known as Cissy—who was forced to move care homes because the local authority refused to meet the additional cost of £53 per week being demanded by the home. Despite Cissy's vulnerable state of health and her deep distress at the prospect of leaving her home, the local authority and the care provider failed to respond. Only five days after being forced to move homes, Cissy was dead. What a way to treat our most vulnerable citizens, who have a right to expect a safe old age.

But that was far from the most shocking story revealed in the series. One programme told of a Liverpool care home resident who was found to have had all her fingernails pulled out by a supposed care assistant. That was more than incompetence or negligence. It was worse than abuse. It was torture.

What is extraordinary is that abuses of that kind occur in a country that provides protection against such treatment. It is not that these older people do not have rights: they are covered by the same human rights legislation, the Human Rights Act 1998, that protects all 214 of us. Older people have the same right to life, the same right to freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment, the same right to a fair hearing, the same right to respect for private and family life, and the same right to peaceful enjoyment of their possessions. They all—we all—have those rights, without discrimination on any grounds. Furthermore, the rights are supported by a structure of standards including the national service framework for older people and the Care Standards Act 2000.

Those standards, however, do not always reflect a modern reality in which older people's rights are overlooked or violated with an alarming degree of impunity. We would never accept such treatment of our children, and cases of child abuse rightly provoke a sense of national outrage. So why, when faced with such treatment of our older people, have we remained silent for so long?

Help the Aged has gathered devastating evidence of abuses of the basic rights of older people over many years. As with the cases in the BBC series, most of the examples have occurred in care settings, and the victims have been people at their most vulnerable. There is the case of an Eastbourne lady with Alzheimer's disease who was found at an inquest last year to have died of dehydration in a care home because no one had taken time to understand that she needed help in eating and drinking. There is the case of a London man with dementia who was taken off his life-preserving heart medication when he moved into a care home, despite instructions from his wife, only to die a few weeks later. That is an extreme example of neglect, shown to be even worse when we learn that it was not even thought necessary to hold an inquest. What of those people's right to life?

There are numerous cases involving care home closures and care shortages. Some older people are forced into separation from families and even spouses by the rationing of care, with no regard being paid to their right to family life. Others, like Cissy Townsend, find that their health and indeed their lives are jeopardised by forced care home moves. At the weekend, the Daily Mail highlighted the case of 102year-old Winifred Humphrey in Kent, given notice by a profiteering care sector.

Yet more older people are forced to live in dire circumstances because of social services' failure to provide adequate care and assistance for them to have a decent life. One lady's mobility difficulties meant that she had to crawl up two flights of stairs to reach the bathroom, and social services were unable to visit to make an assessment for equipment or adaptations for several months. Where is the humanity in that? Surely no one could deny that such abuses need to end. Indeed, as I said earlier, they are illegal in this country. The British Institute of Human Rights, however, says that the Human Rights Act has not yet made a difference to the quality of care in residential homes. That is why we need to appoint an older people's rights commissioner to ensure that it does.

Most of the older people whose rights are currently being neglected are vulnerable. Some suffer from dementia, some lack the necessary financial means, and all are liable to feel daunted by the idea of standing up for their rights in a society that appears happy to ignore them. Without a commissioner, it will still be the case that only a small number are brave enough to assert 215 their rights—only a few individuals each year, taking on the system alone. Leaving challenges on the basis of human rights to the individual just will not work when it comes to dependent and powerless older people.

It is telling that the vast majority of cases of abuse are raised by a family member or friend, not by the older person involved. Help the Aged has identified a range of reasons why older people are often not in a position to pursue their rights on an individual level. There may be physical reasons. Older people may be too ill or lack energy, to the extent that just getting through the day is challenging enough. Others, such as stroke victims, may have difficulties in communicating. Sometimes there are mental health reasons. About two thirds of older people in care settings suffer from moderate or severe dementia, which impairs their ability to challenge their treatment and to be believed when they do complain. Often the reasons are psychological: older people share with other victims of abuse emotional reactions of depression or shame. Occasionally, older people in residential care settings simply lack the privacy to make telephone calls or to speak to someone about sensitive issues. Many are not aware of their rights, or lack information about whom to contact. Perhaps most worryingly, some older people fear reaction or retribution if they speak out about abuse.

The commissioner would play a real role in asserting older people's rights for them, working towards a society in which abuse of older people's rights is simply not tolerated, and away from a society in which the Christian commandment to honour our fathers and mothers is routinely ignored.

I recognise that work is under way to determine which structures should support older people in relation to equal treatment and human rights. Yes, we are working steadily towards the establishment of a single equality body with a strong remit for tackling age discrimination not just in employment and training, but in the provision of goods and services. And yes, there are long- 216 term plans to establish a robust and transparent human rights commission. An older people's rights commissioner could play an especially important role within such bodies when they are set up, working alongside, and shaping the actions of, human rights experts and equality experts. Such a commissioner could blaze a trail for the other commissioners on human rights, and could begin the process of making human rights count among some of the most vulnerable members of our society, so that they can grow old with dignity and without exposure to inhumane and degrading treatment.

We must not mark time until the 2006 starting date for the proposed equality body. We must ensure that older people's rights, as enshrined in law, guidance and rhetoric, become a reality without further delay. There is no one to speak for many older and vulnerable people. They need a voice now; they need protection now; they need recognition now; they need an older person's rights commissioner now.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by David Taylor, Ms Candy Atherton, Mr. Roger Berry, Mr. Harold Best, Mr. David Chaytor, Mr. David Drew, Paul Flynn, Linda Gilroy, Mr. John Horam, Dr. Brian Iddon, Mr. Andy Reed and Mrs. Betty Williams.