Personal Care at Home Bill

My Lords, the amendment would postpone the start date for free care at home for those with high levels of care needs. I declare my interest as president of the Local Government Association. The amendment reflects the concerns of local authorities about the timetable for this measure. The anxieties of the local authorities which are being asked to deliver the new arrangements are of two kinds. First, there is the worry that they cannot get arrangements to help 400,000 people in a new way up and running in the next few months. These months will include local, as well as national elections, with possible changes of local leadership and local policies, and which also cover the weeks of the summer holidays. Secondly, local authorities are concerned that their budgets have already been set for 2010-11 and cannot, at this stage, take the hit of an extra £125 million which they are expected to find by way of cuts in other areas. It may be much more than £125 million if, as the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services—ADASS—calculates, the government figures are a serious underestimate. This is in no way a wrecking amendment. If it finds favour with your Lordships, the measures in the Bill would simply be implemented at a later date. At earlier stages, I have praised the positive aspects of this Bill, and I know it is supported by a number of charities with which I have connections. However, it is not sensible to proceed at a pace that local authorities believe is unfair and unreasonable. After all, central government depends on the hard work and good will of local authorities for the delivery of the Bill’s provisions; alienating those who will have to make it work would be a bad start. Nobody wants this new initiative to be a shambles on 1 October, discrediting its principles and antagonising those it should help. The Minister has been unfailingly courteous and willing to listen throughout the progress of this legislation, as demonstrated in her support for the excellent portability clause pressed so successfully by the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell. She has written to all Peers with an interest in the Bill to offer a concession on the timing of the programme for delivering free care. She has said that if there are delays in local authorities processing all the thousands of assessments for eligibility for free care, then those individuals whose claims are eventually agreed will have the costs of care backdated to the date on which they applied, even though they were not assessed for some time thereafter. This is indeed a helpful concession, and would alleviate some of the pressure when people start to apply for eligibility assessments. I have asked the Local Government Association whether this concession would make a significant difference to the administrative burden it faces. The LGA has responded that despite the very welcome efforts of the Minister, this help would not do the trick. The concession does not negate the need for councils to have completed a vast range of preparatory activity by 1 October. This activity includes: taking action on such matters as impact assessments of free personal care on other related policies; undertaking financial modelling and making changes to current charging systems; conducting equality impact assessments and implementation planning; carrying out an awful lot of training in the new assessments; introducing, testing and ironing out the bugs in new IT systems and reporting procedures; setting up and market-testing contracting arrangements with providers; communicating with the general public through an information and communication drive with new publicity leaflets; and all the rest. It would be wrong to assume there will be any less pressure on councils to complete all these tasks by 1 October simply because they can backdate an individual’s entitlements. This brings me to the question of whether, irrespective of the problems of getting the administrative arrangements up and running by 1 October, local authorities can be expected to find the money for this scheme during the financial year that is just about to start. Councils have already set their budgets and council tax for 2010-11, and are already having to make hefty efficiency savings. The Government have given a pretty good idea of the amount each authority will get from the Department of Health to pay for free care, and local authorities must make up the balance, estimated at £125 million for the half year and £250 million next year—but perhaps much more if the figures used by the Government are wrong. Some way down the line, there may be savings from the Bill’s provisions. For example, fewer people may pay their way and go into residential care, but their money may run out and the council will be required to pick up the bills. If these people are helped to stay at home for longer, public spending at a later date could be avoided in some cases. However, local government expects no such offsetting savings for a couple of years, and everyone agrees that extra money must be found as soon as the new system kicks in. Indeed, Sir Jeremy Beecham at the LGA believes that imposing these new duties on local authorities without fully funding them or lifting other obligations from them violates the new burdens doctrine that was agreed between central and local government. How are local authorities to shoulder this extra financial burden when they are already making significant economies and their social care budgets are under huge pressure? Even if staff are made redundant, costs in the first year are likely to be higher, not lower, because of redundancy arrangements and the rest, and I am sure that the charities, which want to see help going to those who currently pay for care as soon as possible, would not be happy if this help were at the expense of others who also need social care. As the Equality and Human Rights Commission says: ""It is difficult to see how local authorities could meet the cost of this measure from efficiency savings, without any detriment to social care services and other local services"." It is not justifiable to require local authorities to rob Peter to pay Paul, to redo budgets or to revisit council tax levels after the financial year has begun. Surely it is better to take this at a sensible pace and look at a start date of next April. I am therefore grateful to the Minister for her letter and her endeavours to help to ease the burden on councils which the current timetable certainly imposes, but surely the local government sector has right on its side when it says that it is unreasonable and unfair to require councils to implement and to pay a substantial share of the costs of the new arrangements from 1 October this year. Let us agree to postpone implementation, as set out in Amendment 2. I beg to move.