Clause 47 - Further provisions about directions in connection with care trusts
Health and Social Care Bill
5:00 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
It might be helpful for Committee members to consider the context of clause 47 and what it is designed to do. If the Committee accepts the principle—I accept the Conservative Opposition did not agree to this—that the Secretary should have the power to set up a care trust in the circumstances outlined in clause 46, I hope it is clear to the right hon. Gentleman that the powers in clause 47 are necessary and complementary to making sure that that policy objective can be secured.
It is clear from the way in which clause 47 has been drafted that, even in circumstances where a compulsory care trust has been set up, we want to allow for the possibility of an agreement about the resources that should be transferred. We all accept that that would be the preferable solution. At the same time, however, we cannot allow a situation to develop where, in the absence of such an agreement, the compulsory care trust could be frustrated by one or other of the parties not agreeing the resources that were necessary for the establishment of the care trust. That would clearly drive a coach and horses through the main policy objective. We need, therefore, to deal with a situation where, in the absence of agreement, the Secretary of State has to make a decision about the resources. Having looked at the matter very carefully—and I agree that more discussions are needed between the Government, the Local Government Association and other interested parties—we consider that it makes sense to use the expertise of an arbitrator to resolve any disputes about how much resource should be transferred to the care trust under clauses 46 and 47. That is essentially what we are trying to do and it makes sense to deal with it in that way.
The right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir G. Young) has asked me to specify what I think will be transferred to the care trust under clause 47. With the greatest of respect—and I am sure that he knows this as he has done my job—it is not possible for a Minister to tell the Committee precisely how much will be transferred if particular circumstances arise in the future. That is clearly not a possibility. Of course we would have to look at the standing spending assessment and at what the local authority had spent on the services involved. Of course we shall have to do that. In the absence of agreement, however, it will be the arbitrator's job to advise the Secretary of State on the appropriate level of resources that should be transferred.