Personal Care at Home Bill

I shall speak also to Amendments 12, 31, 35 and 43. We come to an issue which I personally find extremely troubling and difficult. That is the impact which this Bill and its regulations will have on those people who, by any criteria, have care needs that are of the most acute kind, but who nevertheless will be deemed ineligible for free personal care under the proposed assessment criteria. I refer specifically to people who are deafblind. Deafblindness much surely be one of the most isolating and burdensome of disabilities, but it is important to understand that the kind of care which deafblind people typically need is quite different from the care usually given to a frail, elderly person. Deafblind people are often able to wash and dress and feed themselves, but without support in communication and mobility, many of them are effectively condemned to a life of solitary imprisonment in their own homes. It can be impossible for them to have access to food or basic information, and they are prevented from interacting with other people. Taking exercise, going out to the shops, visiting the doctor, dealing with household bills—all those things which we take for granted—are out of reach without physical help. Indeed, deafblind people are at extreme risk of having to go into residential care if their care needs are not addressed—exactly the imperative which has motivated the Government to bring forward this Bill. Yet this Bill will be of no use to those suffering from deafblindness, despite the fact that under the current FACS guidance, deafblind people are frequently assessed as having a critical need under the category that relates to involvement in family and wider community life. The Bill in its current form will undermine FACS guidance because it prioritises the provision of personal care over other types of care, such as communications support—the one form of help above all others that gives deafblind people a lifeline to the wider world. As such, the Bill appears discriminatory. Sense, the voluntary sector organisation which champions the interests of deafblind people, has submitted a paper to the Joint Committee on Human Rights in which it argues that the Bill violates the Human Rights Act. In particular, it says that a failure to provide adequate social care for deafblind people can result in a breach of Articles 3, 5 and 8 as well as Article 1, Protocol 1. I am not in a position to offer a legal opinion on the case that Sense has advanced. However, it needs to be taken most seriously. The Government justify the Bill’s discrimination on the grounds that there are limited resources available. In saying that, they argue that their policy is directed to reach those who have the highest needs. The counter argument to that is that the policy is neither reasonable nor proportionate because deafblind people with the highest care needs will not receive care under this policy. Amendments 9, 12, 31 and 43 are designed to address these issues by broadening the definition of the kind of care that will be covered by the Government’s policy. Amendment 35 takes a different approach deliberately distinct from that of Amendment 9 and the others. It is a much narrower amendment which would ensure that those deafblind people who have the greatest need and who are at most risk of needing residential care if their needs are not met may qualify for free care and support. I hope the Government will look at this. There is no doubting the recognition that Ministers have given to the unmet needs of deafblind people. Only in June last year they reissued the guidance document, Social Care for Deafblind Children and Adults. This guidance is aimed above all at social services staff. The case studies that Sense has provided to me, and I believe to a number of your Lordships, are of the most heartrending character. The noble Lord, Lord Low, has asked me to say how sorry he is not to be able to be present to support these amendments and to give the Committee a more graphic picture than I could ever give of the gravity of the disability that deafblind people have to endure. I am in no doubt that the needs of deafblind people should be factored into any revision of social care policy. Therefore, I beg to move.