Personal Care at Home Bill

My Lords, I will be brief. I strongly support Amendment 32, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Best, which would ensure that home adaptations are effectively integrated into the new free personal care arrangements. As the Government made clear in their excellent strategy report, Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods, housing adaptations are an essential component of the triangle of support, with heath and social care, in enabling people to remain living independently in their own homes, a point that has been made by a number of noble Lords. Many noble Lords will have had the experience of breaking their leg or their ankle and finding how difficult it suddenly becomes to do the basic essentials of washing and going to the loo because of the flight of stairs that they hardly ever noticed going up and down each day. Sadly, many noble Lords will have had the experience of finding that the home they have lived in happily for many years with their partner suddenly becomes the major barrier in helping them to care for that partner, when they become seriously ill. By chance, this Committee falls on the day that will no doubt always remain a significant anniversary in my life, as it was 44 years ago today that I fell off a carnival float and broke my neck. If my parents’ home had not been adapted to provide a bathroom and a bedroom downstairs, the amount of personal care which I would have needed would have been considerable, and would then have been a continuing and recurring cost. The ODI report of 2007, Better Outcomes, Lower Costs, by the University of Bristol, reviewed the evidence of the implications for heath and social care budgets of investment in housing adaptations. It set out a wide range of evidence and states: ""Adaptations that remove or reduce the need for daily visits pay for themselves in a time-span ranging from a few months to three years and then produce annual savings. In the cases reviewed, annual savings varied from £1,200 to £29,000 a year"." Housing adaptations need to be an essential part of this Bill and I very much hope the Minister will accept this amendment.