Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

My Lords, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, on such a knowledgeable and impassioned maiden speech. He brings to this House experience steeped in the very best social and community action and, as we have heard today, with a very simple but strong message. I know from my time as a union official in London of the excellent work of the east London churches in uniting diverse communities and strengthening tolerance across the faiths, of which he has been a part. The noble Lord very ably demonstrated today his capacity to bring a fresh perspective and unique insights to the work of this House. I know that I speak for everyone when I say that we will be eager to hear his contributions in future debates. I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. In doing so, I am aware that the principles and details of the Bill have already been subject to considerable debate. I shall therefore endeavour not to repeat the arguments that have already been made, but concentrate instead on one or two general and specific areas that concern me. I say at the outset, however, that I welcome the broad thrust of the Bill. On the one hand it brings some welcome clarity and simplicity to local government structures; on the other, it takes some small steps on the road to political re-engagement with citizens and communities. The new freedoms for local authorities which underpin the Bill have been a long time coming, some might say too long, and they have been hard-earned. There is no doubt that councils have been transformed over the past 10 years. They have become efficient and responsive service providers and should quite rightly take pride in the plaudits heaped on them by their external assessors such as the Audit Commission and the inspectorates. But there is one area where arguably they have been less successful, and it is an area where, to my mind, the Bill could have had greater boldness and vision and to which I would like to focus some of my comments today. It is now widely acknowledged that we are facing a crisis of faith in our political systems. There is an urgent need to inject new energy and enthusiasm into our representative democracy. I suspect that we would all agree that the impetus for this has to start locally, reconnecting individual citizens and their community organisations. The statistics speak for themselves in terms of lower electoral turnouts at local and national elections. I cannot help feeling that, despite the progress in other areas, local government could have done more to play its part in addressing this crucial challenge. While I acknowledge that the Bill contains measures to strengthen community involvement, I remain concerned that it will be too little too late to hold back the tide of political apathy. This is where I agree with so much of the analysis of the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, about the steps necessary to build involvement in the community. I was pleased to hear that there had been considerable dialogue with the LGA in drafting the Bill. I have always had considerable respect for that organisation, a point which I emphasise in the knowledge that I am being followed in the debate by the noble Lord, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, who I know will have strong views on this matter. I run the risk of sailing close to the wind on this. For many years I chaired the Labour Party's local government committee and worked closely with a number of our local government leaders, and I continue to hold them in very high regard. I hope they will not mind it too much if I say that my abiding memory of my interface with local government across the political spectrum was of endless debates about structures, rules and procedures, which always seemed to take precedence over concerns for greater citizen empowerment. Unfortunately, in reading the Bill, it still feels that that balance is eluding us. The Minister has pointed out the Bill's excellent measures. I fully acknowledge and welcome the strengthened role for ward councillors, the concept of the community call for action and the potential for more funding for local community projects. There is no doubt that those and other measures in the Bill will give citizens and communities a stronger voice. But I remain concerned that the Bill has a contradiction, or at least an imbalance, between strong and decisive leadership and giving citizens more of a say over their services—which inevitably is more messy, time-consuming and sometimes unpredictable. If we are not careful about getting the balance right the voice of the citizen and the community will not find its proper place in our measures. I have a simple test for proposals such as these: what would be the reaction of young people—who, after all, are the next generation of community leaders—if they were shown the key proposals in the Bill? Would they be enthused? I could, for example, imagine that young people could be persuaded of the merits of the community call for action; it certainly implies a simple and immediate response. My guess is that they would be less impressed if they heard that the ultimate sanction for community calls for action is to refer the issue to the overview and scrutiny committee. To make young people feel that they can influence their world, and to re-engage them in the political process, requires a rethink of our language, communication, mechanics and understanding of the role of accountability. We are all trying to reach out across the expanding political chasm. I would have liked the Bill to do more to heal that divide. I hope the Minister is able to point me towards proposals that might do that in the future. I have concentrated so far on the Bill's broad objectives but there is also a specific issue of concern that I wish to raise today. In this context I should declare an interest as a member of Unison's parliamentary group. I very much welcome the Bill's proposals to extend and formalise local area agreements, which have the potential to become powerful tools for transforming local services. I equally welcome the duty for named partners and the local authority to co-operate and agree targets within the local area agreement. I know that there has already been pressure to add to the list of named partners, and of course the more you add to the list the more you downgrade the groups that are not explicitly mentioned; but there is one group that I feel deserves explicit mention over the others, and that is the workforce, who after all are crucial to the effective delivery of any agreements made. The proposed change in the Bill from single to multi-agency planning will have the effect of making the current staff consultation arrangements obsolete. There is already an obligation in the information and consultation regulations 2005 for individual employers to consult their staff, and all the social partners are signed up to that. However, under the new local area agreement provisions the key decisions will be taken by the partners, which currently exclude trade unions, and then the council will consult further down the line, making the consultation meaningless as it will present the staff with a fait accompli. So, to maintain the current levels of consultation, it is essential that there is a requirement for recognised trade unions—that is, the voice of the workforce—to be consulted when local area agreements are formulated. This should not be left to individual councils to interpret on a case-by-case basis. I hope that the Minister will be prepared to consider wording to make that explicit. I said at the outset that the Bill is a welcome initiative, and I want to reinforce that view. Having spoken to many people in local government both working and providing the services, I know that the Bill has broad support. I hope that we are able to assist its passage through this House in that spirit.