Personal Care at Home Bill

One of the difficulties with this legislation is that it covers two distinct groups of people: disabled people who may be young and may have a condition with which they will live for a considerable time—the whole purpose of this measure is to enable them to have the means to pursue fulfilling lives—and older people who become ill for one reason or another. I noted the noble Baroness’s distinction about intermediate care being provided to people who have been in hospital. How many people is it envisaged will meet the FACS criteria who will not have been in hospital? We are talking about people who will be very ill and very disabled even though they may not have had acute care. For very many older people who may or may not be eligible for care under this measure, simply maintaining their ability to live independently at a level of operation which is perhaps lower than it was before they were ill—for example, if they have had a stroke—will be a good result. It is not about improving their ability to live independently because, for some of them, it probably cannot be improved; it can only be maintained at a lower level. Is it the intention of this Bill, clumsily worded though it is, to reflect that—that some people will not improve as a result of reablement, but will simply continue to be able to cope and perhaps at a reduced level? That is an important point to make and make clear for people who may be doing assessments in the future.