Clause 45 - Care Trusts where voluntarypartnership arrangements
Health and Social Care Bill
10:30 am
Mr Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 295, in page 38, line 12, leave out
`is, or is to be, a party'
and insert
`and a local authority are, or are to be, parties.'.
The clause and part III of the Bill establish a useful innovation—a tool for developing integrated care services—and we want to explore how it will be used. Although we welcome the policy intention, a number of organisations have expressed concern about how it will be translated into practice. The Local Government Association has made representations to all hon. Members about its underlying unease, and the amendment attempts to address that unease. Nevertheless, we support the proposition that there should be more joint working and that the flexibilities in the Health Act 1999 should be built upon. A structure of the sort envisaged in the clause is one way to achieve that integration.
The Bill makes it clear that the mechanism to establish the new care trusts voluntarily does not allow for equal partnership between the two agencies. The amendment seeks merely to put local authorities on an equal footing with the NHS bodies with which they will working to put the new independent care trust arrangements in place. It should be a marriage of equals, leading to an entity that is genuinely the product of the two organisations.
I suspect that I will stray too far, Mr. Maxton, if I start to raise other questions about the clause during this debate. I hope that we shall have the opportunity on clause stand part to probe some of the issues not dealt with in amendments. Suffice it to say that I hope that the Government will respond positively to this amendment and to several others. That will help allay the concerns of local authorities and enable them to enter into such arrangements with full commitment, which will allow better services to be provided jointly between health and social services.