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Queenss Speech debate Baroness Jolly May 14, 2013

My Lords, I want to talk briefly on public health and then spend some time on the Care Bill - not in any great detail, that is for the second reading debate next week. The Coalition Governments Mid-Term Review commits to reducing preventable early death as a key priority. Nothing would do more to reduce the number of preventable early deaths than dissuading children from smoking or drinking alcohol. My Lords, aside from the cost to our economy of policing drunken young people and later the NHS looking after their liver diseases, or offering a diagnosis of lung cancer to those who are too young to hear it, we owe it to society to do whatever it takes to stop young people killing themselves early by either too much alcohol or tobacco. Her Majesty said in her speech: Other measures will be laid before you. I sincerely hope that as soon as the Government has finished its consultations, it heeds the advice of its Minister for Public Health and that of the chief executive of Public Health England and brings before parliament measures to standardise cigarette and tobacco packaging and introduce minimum alcohol pricing. Those of us who have sat through debates in the last couple of years know that the legal provisions relating to adult social care in England have been scattered over many acts, over the post war period. Those of us who have caring responsibilities know what a quagmire the current system is. It lacks cohesion and common purpose. There is no real recognition of the role of carers or provision for them. It is a postcode lottery. My Lords, There have been plenty of well-argued reports over the last 20 years, but it has to be said that successive governments have put all this in the too hard to deal with tray. The issue of funding catastrophic care costs had been parked.

The care of the most vulnerable was ducked for decades. But a Liberal Democrat Minister of State was intent on rectifying all that. I am proud, that my friend the Rt Hon Paul Burstow, as Care Minister, persuaded his colleagues in the Department of Health to consult on these issues, resulting in the White Paper Caring for our Future and furthermore in line with the Coalition Agreement, the Department of Health asked Andrew Dilnot to chair a commission with commissioners Lord Warner and Dame Jo Williams to examine the funding of adult social care. The Dilnot-led commission developed an elegant model leading to a solution for the affordability of the catastrophic care costs. Implementation of the report was made tougher by the emerging reality of the recession. It was welcomed by the sector but it was several months before it gained Cabinet approval, and I commend those from all benches in your Lordships House who used all avenues of communication to influence that decision. Based on the White Paper and the Law Commission Report on Social Care, my Rt Honourable friend Paul Burstow last summer published a draft Care Bill. Health bills seem to come along quite often, and with social care bills few and far between the outcome had to be right. So the decision was taken to put it before a joint scrutiny committee. I had the privilege to sit on this, with some of parliaments acknowledged experts in the field. We took some considerable time taking evidence from those in the sector, supplemented by public consultation, and a report was produced with nearly 100 recommendations. We have a Bill published last week to reform the law relating to care and support for adults and the law relating to support for carers which puts the individuals wellbeing at the heart of decision-making, and gives carers new legal rights to services. It places duties on councils and the NHS to work together and defines a single, streamlined assessment and eligibility framework and for the first time. It gives adult safeguarding boards a statutory footing. All the legislation of the past decades updated and put into a single bill. Moving to carers, My Lords, when we visualise a carer what do we see? Do we see one in the mirror each morning? Do we think of someone our own age, a neighbour or relative?

I expect very few think of a child, yet a BBC survey in 2010 showed that there are 700,000 young carers in the UK, many of whom care for more than 50 hours a week. They care for parents, siblings and sometimes grandparents. In this legislation there is a danger of a lacuna. In general, issues surrounding children are dealt with by the Department of Education. It is imperative that children have the same rights as an adult carer, so we must ensure that there is adequate cross-referencing of the Care Bill and the Child and Families Bill to make sure that is the case. My noble friend Baroness Tyler of Enfield is not in her place today and I am sure many others will join her in making sure that this is achieved. It is worth remembering, My Lords, that this Bill is for adult social care, and many assume that it is solely to address the care of those who are old. But we have to remember that this bill applies equally to adults of working age and those who have care needs as a result of disability, problems of long term mental health problems or enduring illnesses. My Lords, this Bill, championed and led by one Liberal Democrat Care Minister, is being delivered by a second, the Rt Hon Norman Lamb. They share a liberal perspective of fairness, guided by Lib Dem principles for social care, from a 2010 policy paper - partnership, personalisation, prevention, protection, performance and productivity. Some might say Bring it on!