Personal Care at Home Bill

The Bill before your Lordships has no right of appeal for those people who desperately need personal care and may have been rejected by their local authority. It is very important that people who have been denied the right to personal care and feel that they have been wrongly assessed should have the right of appeal. Staff working in many different fields have the right of appeal for many different reasons. Why should service users be denied this right? Why has the right of appeal been left out of this Bill? In order to establish this, it is necessary first to amend the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Act 2003. This is covered by Amendment 39, which creates the right of appeal. Amendment 3 simply amends Clause 1(1) of the Bill to make it clear that the community care Act is being amended. There is a growing army of elderly people, some of whom have serious and complex neurological conditions. When money is scarce, it will be very easy for local authorities to refuse much-needed help. Some local authorities have a very dogmatic approach to the people who need help. It is the wish of most people to stay in their own homes and, if possible, to die there. However, that is not for everyone. I will give your Lordships an example, having received an e-mail last week from the daughter of an elderly lady. It states: ""These are my views and those of my mother. The Government seems set on providing care for elderly people in their own homes, stating that this is their preference. However, the sad fact is that many elderly people, like my mother, live alone and long for company. Although she has carers coming in three times a day, they stay a very short time to deal with household and personal care tasks, and she then spends many hours alone with no-one to talk to. For this reason, there should be choice so that those with families nearby or close friends can have the opportunity to stay in their home with the help they need. But for those without this resource and who express a preference, a move into a care home will mean constant companionship, planned activities during the day and the stimulation of conversation with others. Research shows that constant stimulation is beneficial to the elderly and aids good health. Leaving an elderly person to cope in their own home can lead to isolation, depression and vulnerability to poor health"." I brought up the need for a right of appeal at Second Reading but had no response from the Government. I hope that this time there will be a positive reply. As people’s needs vary so much, choice and flexibility should be the policy of all local authorities. Unfortunately, that so often is not the case. Therefore, an amendment to the appeals system should be in place. Would it not be possible for the Care Standards Tribunal, which deals with many appeals from members of staff, also to deal with appeals from service users who have been turned down by their local authorities? I hope that the Government and your Lordships will accept this amendment. I beg to move.