Clause 47 - Further provisions about directions in connection with care trusts
Health and Social Care Bill
4:45 pm
Sir George Young (North West Hampshire, Conservative)
Before we move on to part IV, I should like to press the Minister on the financial arrangements that follow the scenario that we have just discussed under clause 46. Clause 47 relates to the amount that must be transferred from local government to the care trust following the establishment of the care trust. Some important issues are involved on which the Minister must focus.
By definition, we are discussing a local authority that has failed and did not want to enter into a voluntary arrangement but for which none the less, for the reasons that the Minister described, a care trust has been established. The issue arises of how the care trust will be funded. The Minister will look to the local authority to transfer the social services budget for the provision of the services that the local authority would previously have provided.
I do not believe that it will be straightforward. At present, most local authorities spend more than their standard spending assessments. The local authority in my constituency spends more on social services than it is supposed to under the rate support grant formula. It would be perfectly reasonable for the local authority to say to the Government, ``You think we ought to spend £x million on social services, which is the amount in the RSG; that is the amount to which you should help yourselves in order to run social services.'' However, the Minister might say, ``You are spending more than the SSA. I think it entirely reasonable that a larger sum than the SSA provision should go to the care trust.'' If the Minister had his way, that would affect the local authority, as money that might otherwise be designated for education or transport, for example, might go to the trust.
We now come to what will happen in the event of a disagreement. Paragraph (c) provides that in the event of a disagreement an arbitrator will be involved. The explanatory notes touch on that. In the event of a failure to agree locally on the level of funding an arbitrator can be brought in to determine the appropriate level, which can be checked against a national formula to compare decisions made locally. I wonder whether the Minister might say a little more about that. It is a novel arrangement—I have not come across it before—whereby an outside person will adjudicate as to how much money is transferred from a local authority to a central Government Department. That will require the wisdom of Solomon. If, as is suggested in the clause, he refers to a national formula, I imagine that that is the SSA. If that is the amount that ought to be transferred, the result may be that slightly less money is put in than was being spent previously.
On clause 47 stand part, it would help the Committee and local authorities to know exactly how much money the Secretary of State was going to take out of their pockets in order to go ahead with the arrangements under clause 46.