Welfare Reform Bill

Accountants are much more objective. In 2005, the Government made public their commitment to work towards equality for disabled people by 2025, and I say to the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, who was castigating the Government for not being joined up on issues, that over the past 12 years this Government have done a lot to support and enfranchise disabled people. I draw his attention to the independent living strategy published recently that looks at issues across government. I note that the amendment has support across the Committee from the noble Baronesses, Lady Thomas and Lady Wilkins, the noble Countess, Lady Mar, and the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale. Since 2005, we have come a long way, continuing to build on commitments to create a system that allows disabled people to have maximum choice and control over the support services that they receive. The noble Baroness’s amendment would bring community care services for disabled people within the scope of the right to control provisions in this Bill. Community care policy is already consistent with the aims of the Bill. Existing legislation already provides for direct payments in respect of community care services and the power to direct local authorities about the delivery of those services. There is also legislation in respect of certain services for children. The ministerial concordat, Putting People First, which I will cover shortly, binds together all the key players. To answer the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, directly, the exclusion of community care in the Bill is to ensure that we do not duplicate, or cause confusion with, existing powers. The cross-sector concordat, Putting People First, establishes the collaboration between central and local government, the sector's professional leadership, providers and the regulator. It sets out the shared aims and values that will guide the transformation of adult social care, and recognises that the sector will work across agendas with users and carers to transform people’s experience of local support and services. We have created the cross-government independent living strategy, which I referred to a moment ago. It is a five-year plan that aims to make sure that disabled people have the same choice, freedom, dignity and control over their lives as non-disabled people. We also piloted individual budgets in 13 local authorities between 2005 and 2007. Across government, the shared ambition is to put people first through a radical reform of public services, enabling people to live their own lives as they wish, confident that services are of high quality, safe and promote their individual needs for independence, well-being and dignity. The right to control is an important and welcome step forward in our journey towards increased choice and control, helping us to achieve full equality for disabled people by 2025. We all recognise the importance to disabled people of giving them the choice and control they want over their lives. We need to make sure that this new right to control is implemented in a way that delivers real choice and control for disabled people. We are confident that we can achieve this by using relevant powers in community care legislation alongside the powers contained in this Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, has said that the right to control will be transformative. Disabled people around the country really welcome it. It builds on the important work of the 2005 report Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People and the 2008 independent living strategy. It also builds on the success of direct payments. I welcome these views, which fully reflect our intentions. We want to build on best practice from direct payments, offering greater choice and control by extending direct payments and self-directed support to other services. Creating a more joined-up system, which places fewer administrative burdens on disabled adults, is one of the areas we want to investigate as we trailblaze the right to control. I can confirm that we will be evaluating in the trailblazers how the services under the right to control fit with community care services in order to ensure a seamless service of self-directed support. I believe that we have a common cause on that issue. We are working closely with colleagues in other government departments to ensure that our policy objectives are consistent, and to explore ways in which we can work collectively for the benefit of disabled people. The right to control, and the current changes to the delivery of adult social care, will together enable the implementation of the Government’s commitment to empower disabled people, and ensure that choice and control are recognised as a right. To pick up on one point that the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, raised about the legal structure around community care, I am sure that she is aware that the Law Commission is currently undertaking a project to review adult social care law in England and Wales with a view to producing a report in May 2011. The overall aim of the project is to provide a clearer and more cohesive legal framework for adult social care, which is consistent, transparent and in line with the modern understanding of disability. It would not seem right to make further piecemeal reform of adult social care law until the Law Commission has completed its work. We will review its findings and determine whether it impacts on the right to control after the report has been produced. That does not stop us in the trailblazers making sure we use the powers that are there to be joined up, and to test and develop what the right to control would mean, including for community care services. There is no intent that these should somehow be outwith this approach. We are really talking about how the intent should be framed in legislation, and I hope that the noble Baroness will accept that.