Clause 36 - The Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection
Health and Social Care
9:30 am
Mr David Lammy (Parliamentary Secretary, Department of Health; Tottenham, Labour)
I indicated to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam that we can, if he wants, ask a series of ''what if?'' questions about the new inspectorate. I am afraid that I cannot read Sir Ian Kennedy's mind and tell the Committee what he thinks about different aspects of Government policy as they develop. I want to explain why CHAI is independent and how it can realise its independence as it takes shape.
The hon. Gentleman will know that this is not a completely blank canvas because we already have the Commission for Health Improvement, which has, in several of its reports, been fairly robust with Ministers about decisions that we have made and targets that we
have set. I am pleased that it has also praised our achievements. The steps that we are discussing take us forward; we are merging bodies to create a more powerful organisation with greater independence. The Bill speaks for itself, as do the individuals involved. I understand the hon. Gentleman's preoccupation with targets, but the clause is about far more than that, and as you indicated, Mr. Griffiths, we will discuss these issues in greater detail as we move on.
It is important to recognise that CHAI will help to identify ways in which the quality of health services can be improved, and it will ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to promote the health needs of the local population. Hon. Members will know that there are three planks to the Government's policy on the NHS. The first, clearly, is standards, and the second is local delivery. Local outcomes and accountability are important. The third plank is the exciting development of choice in the NHS. It is important that people are able to exercise choice regarding their health care provider, and CHAI will assist in that.
CHAI will also reduce the fragmentation of inspection, helping to ease burdens on front-line staff. It will, for the first time, enable the NHS and private health care providers to have a single rigorous inspectorate, armed with the ability to highlight good practice and expose poor performance. There will be few Members who have not, in their surgeries, had constituents complaining about the proximity of Government to the private health care system, and the merging of the two inspection systems under CHAI is a significant development.
The Government will no longer be the judge and jury for the NHS. CHAI will be the judge, and the people, as they come to trust and believe in that new independent body, will be the jury. Importantly, the provisions have been drafted to enable CHAI to be more independent than the old Commission for Health Improvement and the Audit Commission. CHAI will also report directly to Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales on the state of health care in England and in Wales.