Lord Adebowale: My Lords, I declare my interests as the founder and co-chair of Visionable, a provider of services to the NHS; as a board member of Nuffield; and as an adviser to Telstra UK. I also chair the NHS Confederation, the largest body representing health leaders in the UK. I welcome my noble friend and colleague, Lord Stevens, to this House. We have often had debates. It is great to see him here. It...
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, in commenting on the gracious Speech, I will limit my remarks to matters relating to health and social care and the proposed Bill that will come before this House in due course. I declare my interest as chair of the NHS Confederation, which represents the leaders in health and social care across the country—the people who will be running the integrated care systems, the primary...
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, I support the Bill. Clearly, we are in the throes of a pandemic, and the Government’s attempt to make it a slow pandemic rather than a fast one needs to be supported. I want to make three points, the first of which relates to the vulnerable. It is in a time of crisis that the real values and priorities of a society become apparent, and I will reference homelessness in this regard....
Lord Adebowale: I rise to put forward my view on the Bill. Before doing so, I congratulate Steve Reed in the other place and the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, on bring the Bill forward. I agree entirely with the points made by the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Harris. I declare my interests as a board member of NHS England and the chief executive of Turning Point, which provides services to people...
Lord Adebowale: Having listened to the Statement and the comments from the House, I cannot help thinking, as a former housing officer, that this dreadful tragedy is a terrible episode in a systemic failure. I recognise that the Government are making every effort to respond to the tragedy—albeit too late—but I wonder whether the Minister might respond to the systemic issues. There is evidence that a...
Lord Adebowale: I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for introducing the debate and I pay tribute to the inspirational late Lord Rix. I will share some observations on the healthcare experience of the people we support at Turning Point. I declare my interest as chief executive of that learning disabilities service provider, which for over 25 years has supported over 450 people with learning...
Lord Adebowale: I support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Rosser. I have some experience of the police and their responses to mental health as chair of the commission on the Met’s response to mental health policing in London which—I hesitate to claim credit—lead to the concordat mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee and the noble Lord, Lord Rosser. It is important that mental health...
Lord Adebowale: I understand the point that the Minister is making but I wonder whether she might comment on this question: in areas where such concordats do not exist, are the Government willing to accept that those with mental health challenges will receive a poorer service? Do they accept that if you happen to live in an area where the voluntary agreements have not come together, you get a poor service?...
Lord Adebowale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children aged 16 or 17 have presented to their local authority as homeless in (1) 2015–16, and (2) 2014–15, and how many of those were (a) assessed under the Housing Act 1996, and (b) assessed and then accommodated under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996.
Lord Adebowale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children aged 16 or 17 have presented to their local authority as homeless, and how many of those were accommodated under the Children Act 1989, in (1) 2015–16, and (2) 2014–15.
Lord Adebowale: I hesitate to interrupt the Minister in full flow, but Adebowale is a good old Yorkshire name, and pronounced differently from how the Minister said it.
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to speak in this debate. I congratulate the Minister on calling the debate, and indeed the noble Baroness, Lady McGregor-Smith, on leading the review. I do not think that I have had the chance to welcome her to the House, so I say hello and welcome. I want to say a few things. As we all know, the UK is a diverse and multicultural society, despite the...
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, in contributing to this debate, first, I state that I am chief executive of Turning Point, a health and social care organisation supporting people with complex needs. In many cases this includes supporting some of the most vulnerable people in society to find suitable housing. Turning Point is also a registered social landlord. I am also chair of the London Fairness Commission,...
Lord Adebowale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in transferring healthcare in police custody to the NHS from April 2015; why that transfer has been delayed; what plans they have to ensure that work done by the police and NHS England to date is not lost; and how they will ensure that the same level of physical and mental healthcare is available to those in custody as to those...
Lord Adebowale: Right. Well, I have drawn the short straw in that I am the 23rd speaker on the list and I follow the noble Lord, Lord Bragg. To be honest, I think that I should sit down now. The noble Lord made a cracking speech. I have listened to some 20 informative and incredible speeches containing a lot of detail, knowledge and history. My contribution is a modest one. I thought about whether I should...
Lord Adebowale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the statement by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 12 October (HL Deb, cols 36–40) on the right to buy, whether (1) there will be a timeframe within which housing associations are expected to build extra homes, and (2) there will be a minimum guarantee of rented accommodation built to support individuals suffering from ongoing health issues.
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Harris, for bringing this important debate to the Chamber. I declare my interest as chief executive of Turning Point, a health and social care charity and social enterprise which works with people with complex needs—including mental health, substance misuse and learning disabilities—many of whom are young people. In a sense, we are the ambulance at...
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, I declare my interests as chief executive of Turning Point, which provides health and social interventions for many people with learning disabilities, and as a non-executive member of NHS England. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for tabling this debate nearly a year after the Government responded to the report of the Confidential Inquiry into Premature Deaths of People...
Lord Adebowale: My Lords, to be honest I was going to home, because I am number 30 on the list and I have listened to all the speeches—well, most of them. I was going to stand up and declare my interest as the chief executive of a charity and a social enterprise and the chair of another charity, as well as my membership of many others, and then speak in favour of the Bill to provide some light relief. I...
Lord Adebowale: Spoken like a true democrat. The point is that the Bill is confusing. People cannot see the point of it. The NCVO, the Countryside Alliance and the National Trust are not organisations prone to hysterical statements about government policy; they are considered organisations that think very carefully about what they are going to say in support or in critique of government policy, and not one...