Personal Care at Home Bill

My Lords, the House will recall that, in Committee, I tabled a similar amendment calling for arrangements to be put in place to ensure that recipients of free personal care are guaranteed seamless support in the event of moving from one local authority to another. My concern has been to ensure that no one's human rights are compromised by avoidable interruptions or breaks in care-support funding. People with critical-plus needs are potentially in a very vulnerable situation when they move. They need to know that there will be no hiatus in their free personal care provision. Hiatuses are, unfortunately, all too common in the current system, and cause extreme stress and hardship. I have witnessed situations when care funding has stopped for nearly six months, while a severely disabled person renegotiated a similar care package in his new local authority. This person was not only forced to make all his assistants redundant—they were due to move with him while he looked for new staff locally—but he was left with absolutely no money to pay for backup care in his new home. He managed to scrape by, by taking a loan out and praying that family and volunteers would just about cover the costs. He survived the journey but, due to the stress and disruptions to care on top of the anxiety we all go through when moving, others have not. Even a few weeks’ delay or uncertainty can be dangerous for this group of people with personally challenging disabilities or illnesses. This Bill attempts to create some of the foundations of a future national care service. One important feature of this modern service will be to provide universal consistency and portability of care. Therefore, it seems vital to me to seize this opportunity to test how we can deliver portability in practice. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, said in Committee that the Government would take this issue away with a view to making appropriate provision for transitional protection in regulations. I am very pleased to inform noble Lords that she has been true to her word. It feels like I and my colleagues from the Royal Association for Disability Rights—RADAR—have been locked in a room with officials for weeks, looking for the very best and clearest way to actualise the portability policy intent. This has been a complex and challenging task. Noble Lords will know that community care law is plentiful and tortuously complex. I am pleased to say that we have emerged with what I think are clear and robust enforceable regulations and directives. I am very much indebted to the Minister for her passion and determination to find a workable solution, and to her officials who have worked with me in the true spirit of co-production, which is extremely hard to get right. We have been working on it for many years. I also acknowledge and thank Luke Clements, who gave me excellent legal advice, and RADAR for its usual high standard of support and knowledge. Finally, I am very grateful, as always, for the strong support this issue has received from all sides of the House. I know that the noble Baronesses, Lady Barker and Lady Williams, share my passion to extend this freedom of movement to the most disabled in our society. My purpose in retabling this amendment is to ensure that the Government can set out on the record the fruits of our deliberations and the shape of future regulations. We must have it on the record. I shall say no more now because the Minister will doubtless give a full exposition in her response. I beg to move.