Schedule 1
Health and Social Care Bill
2:15 pm
Sandra Gidley (Shadow Minister, Health; Romsey, Liberal Democrat)
On first glancing at these amendments, I thought that it was useful to have greater clarity about the composition of the board. I would have hoped that that was an automatic consideration. I was interested when the hon. Member for Eddisbury referred to the Equality Act 2006 as I think I might be the only person here who had the pleasure of serving on that particular Bill Committee. During the progress of that Committee, numerous attempts were made to prescribe the detail of the board even more. Those were largely resisted because the underlying assumption behind the Equalities Act was that a rights-based approach should be at the heart of everything and that it did not help to continue some of the silos that existed with the separate equalities bodies.
Obviously we are now in a situation that is not quite the same. A large number of legitimate concerns have been raised about whether social care may be diminished in some way. I have a lot of sympathy with that argument because social care has always been a second cousin and it was pointed out in the evidence on Tuesday that the bulk of the inspection will be in the social care sector. Something will have gone badly wrong if the social care sector does not have a fair share of the action.
Although I hope that such considerations are automatic, it is useful to think about new sub-paragraph (1B), which mentions
“collective experience and knowledge relating to all of the Commission’s functions”.
Again, I hope that, when a board is appointed, care is taken to ensure that all functions are represented in some way. To draw a parallel with the Equality Act, we had interminable discussions about whether there would be enough women on the board, whether there would be enough people from ethnic minorities, and whether people with disabilities would be adequately represented. Most people reluctantly decided to go with the flow to a certain extent and to trust that it would happen in practice. So far, there have not been any problems, but I can well understand why there were concerns.
In an earlier new sub-paragraph, there is an attempt to beef-up public participation and involvement. Because concerns were raised on Second Reading, I would welcome the Minister’s comments on that subject. I also query what new sub-paragraph (1A)(e) means. It seems to be a catch-all measure. I can understand why it was put in, but I wonder whether there are any circumstances in which the hon. Member for Eddisbury envisages that it would be used. On new sub-paragraph (1D), as a member of the Select Committee on Health, I understand that there have been a number of recommendations about Select Committees taking on extra powers, but more time will be needed if that is to happen because it is hard to keep on top of the relevant legislation.
I shall briefly discuss amendment No. 160. I fully support the Joint Committee on Human Rights, but am yet to be convinced about the merits of separate adult social care committees, health care committees and mental health committees. Again, it is particularly important that there is greater awareness of mental health throughout the commission because one of the problems in society as a whole is that the issue of mental health is often parked-off to another Department. Even in the health service, there is often a separate mental health trust and that does not help the wider understanding of mental health issues in society. Rather than having a separate committee that seems to have responsibility for mental health issues, I would prefer the Bill to establish a way of underpinning everything else. Because so many people are affected by mental health issues and there is so little understanding, it is important to make that subject almost a core value of the commission.