Co-operation to improve well-being: Wales
Children Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Mr Don Touhig (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales), Department for Constitutional Affairs; Islwyn, Labour/Co-operative)
Government amendments Nos. 145 and 150 are straightforward and are intended as clarification rather than as a change of policy. As it stands, clause 21 places a duty of co-operation on an NHS trust all, or most of whose, hospitals, establishments or facilities are in the area of a local authority. A number of trusts in Wales operate across local authority boundaries, with more services being provided in some areas than in others. In my area, the trust serves five county boroughs in south-east Wales.
Trusts would not be under the same duty for all local authorities, leaving some local authorities without co-operation from an NHS trust. Amendment No. 145 therefore places a trust under a duty to co-operate with all authorities in whose areas they provide services. Amendment No. 150 to clause 25 is equivalent, setting out that NHS trusts will be members of each local safeguarding children's board in whose areas they provide services.
I now turn to the amendments tabled in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Julie Morgan) and will make some brief comments. The majority of general practitioners in Wales are independent contractors and therefore unlike other NHS employees. The duty to co-operate currently applies to, among others, local health boards rather than to individual general practitioners. Local health boards enter into contract with each GP practice in their area and those contracts set out the quality standards to which the practice should aspire.
The main purpose of clause 21 is to give a formal basis to the framework planning arrangements for children and young people that my colleague Ministers in the Assembly established in Wales. That requires attendance at the partnerships of bodies with strategic responsibilities such as local health boards, rather than individual practitioners such as GPs.
Clause 23 already requires local health boards to discharge their functions
''having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children''.
It also requires that
''any services provided by another person''
on their behalf
''are provided having regard to that need.''
That means that, in making arrangements for the provision of primary medical services, local health boards must ensure that a contractor, such as a GP, provides services in such a way as to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Locally, each contract may be varied by the agreement of both parties.
The Assembly and the Government are content that the new responsibilities of commissioning bodies can be reflected in contracts. The intention of clause 23 is to impose the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children on all NHS trusts in Wales. NHS trusts in England are covered by the equivalent provision in clause 8. Although some Welsh children will be treated by trusts in England, as far as we are aware, no trusts have facilities in both England and Wales. Therefore, there is no advantage to be gained from amendment No. 118. With those points in mind, I hope that my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Julie Morgan) will feel reassured and feel it unnecessary to press her amendments.