Adult Social Care (Hansard, 7 March 2005)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)
My Lords, my ministerial colleague, Stephen Ladyman, announced last August that we would be developing a Green Paper on the future of adult social care. I expect the Green Paper to be published shortly. The Government announced on 3 March an extra £60 million for partnerships for older people projects. They will provide a range of schemes that maintain and enhance the independence of older people.

§ Baroness Greengross
My Lords, I thank the Minister very much for that reply and I look forward with interest to the Green Paper. I hope that it will cover all the various things that he mentioned. In particular. I would like to draw his attention to the importance of highlighting the need for people to have low-level social care. To retain independence it is often the small tasks—shopping or, in health terms, nail cutting, tasks involving household gadgets or changing lightbulbs, which involve 476 safety—that can make all the difference between someone remaining independent or having to go far too early into expensive long-term care.

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, we want to ensure that there is a proper balance between prevention and other activities in the area of intensive care support. What services a person needs to allow him or her to live happily and sakly in their own home rather than end up in hospital or a care home are specific to each individual, as I think the noble Baroness is saying. I accept that tasks such as shopping and cleaning can enhance a person's well-being, improve their quality of life and avoid social exclusion. Through the Green Paper we want to try to encourage councils to give due balance to those issues.

§ Baroness Gardner of Parkes
My Lords, is it not a fact that local authorities have usually supplied these services for people and that that has worked well, and that a great many voluntary bodies have been involved? By using volunteers, particularly older volunteers, one is giving them an occupation which in itself can be beneficial. Perhaps the most useful social service of all has been our freedom passes to get us around because that keeps people mobile longer than anything.

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, I am sure that everyone in the House pays tribute to the Mayor of London and his freedom passes, which I am sure have benefited a number of Members of this House. I also pay tribute to the work done by voluntary organisations. The private sector, as well as the public sector, has also provided some of the support services that are needed by older people.

§ Baroness Howe of Idlicote
My Lords, will the Green Paper include among those who might be eligible for reimbursement members of an individual's own family if they are able to provide lower-level social care? I hope that he can answer that.

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, I am afraid that the noble Baroness will have to wait for the Green Paper to be published. I am not at liberty to anticipate that. Eligibility criteria for adult social care are a matter to be determined by local councils.

§ The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth
My Lords, the noble Baroness's Question would have been dear to the heart of the late Lord Sheppard, who was a former Member of these Benches. Do the Government agree that the New Vision for Adult Social Care should lead us to think in terms not just of that rather cliched expression "person-centred care" but of person, family and community-centred care'? I return to the recent supplementary on the voluntary sector, which is under-resourced and having difficulty in recruiting. However, I would like to instance a successful example of the voluntary sector; namely, the church-sponsored initiative, the voluntary care group advisory service in Hampshire.

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, I am sure the whole House will want to pay tribute to the contribution that 477 Lord Sheppard made to our public life. As someone who saw him as a young man opening the batting for England. I remember that period with great fondness.
As regards the right reverent Prelate's points about the voluntary sector, the Government accept that that sector plays a large role in the area that we are discussing and will continue to support those services. I pay tribute to the service to which the right reverend Prelate drew attention. However, there are many other areas in which the Government have taken initiatives such as direct payments where elderly people themselves can make the decisions about the kind of support that they wish to acquire.

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, my noble friend referred to the importance of integration of services across various agencies and the voluntary sector. While not seeking to anticipate the announcement by the Government, does he agree that there may be a case for a stronger role being given to the health service in taking leadership to ensure that there is consistency of approach across all these agency boundaries?

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, we will, of course, have to wait for the Green Paper but I am sure that my noble friend has read the report by Professor Ian Philp, Better health in old age, which draws attention to huge improvements in hip replacements, knee replacements, cataract operations and so on from which older people have benefited through the improved services that this Government have introduced under the NHS.

§ The Countess of Mar
My Lords—

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords—

§ Baroness Amos
My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats.

§ Baroness Neuberger
My Lords, will the Minister acknowledge that the engagement of older people in social activity reduces the likelihood of their institutionalisation by almost 50 per cent? Will he therefore ensure that the New Vision jar Adult Social care emphasises help with social engagement and encourages funding both for the statutory and voluntary sectors, as the right reverend Prelate has already mentioned, rather than what we have seen thus far, which emphasises help largely for those who are already very dependent?

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, as I said in my initial reply, I am sure that the Green Paper will tackle the wide range of services that older people need to live fulfilling and independent lives. I have four pages of examples of good local practice, with which I shall not detain the House. However, one that stands out is the Asian Elders Project in Barnet which helps to support independent living, and a number of others which help people to maintain their independence through physical exercise.

§ The Countess of Mar
My Lords, is it not a sad reflection on society that we are having to depend on government and organisations to provide services such as shopping and replacing light bulbs which should be provided either by relatives or by good neighbours? What is the noble Lord doing to foster genuine good neighbourliness and to encourage relations to look after their own people?

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, that is a little unfair to the many people up and down the country in all kinds of families who give a huge amount of support to their families and older relatives. Carers are a good example of that. I pay tribute to the work that they do in looking after older people and providing support in that regard. The Government have given support through direct payments, the £325 million for the Carers Grant and in other areas to support families as they look after members of an increasingly ageing population.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords, regardless of any Green Paper that the Government might publish and of any help given to voluntary organisations, I am sure that the House and the Minister will agree that there is nothing better than a neighbour looking after a neighbour.

§ Lord Warner
My Lords, I absolutely agree. I am old enough to remember the good neighbour scheme introduced by a Labour government in the mid-1970s.