Personal Care at Home Bill

The amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Best, refers to a commencement date of 1 April 2011. It is worth clarifying that this would prevent the making and laying of regulations before April 2011. The effect of the amendment would therefore be to delay implementation of the scheme until June 2011. That probably was not the noble Lord’s intention; indeed, it was not the effect of the amendment that he tabled in Committee. I am sure the House will be pleased to hear that I do not intend to repeat the remarks that I made at previous stages of the Bill but will instead address the issue of how the Government want to address the concerns expressed about councils’ readiness to introduce these measures from October 2010. I note briefly that we are supported in our ambition to take action by key charities, which recognise that the Bill provides a real opportunity to individuals and their families. I thank my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley for reminding the House that we are not starting down this path with a blank sheet of paper. We do not think it right to delay support to individuals because of local implementation issues—we think it is right to tackle those issues. However, we have listened to the concerns expressed, both in this place and in our widespread consultation on the proposals. Taking those concerns on board, we have already confirmed in our response to the consultation that we will ensure that councils are able to phase in the implementation of free personal care between October 2010 and March 2011, to take account of both local issues and potential peaks in demand for assessment. It is, however, our firm intention to introduce the scheme from October so that people can begin to benefit from this offer. In recognition of the large number of assessments that may need to be done initially, we propose to include in regulations a measure of backdating for individuals already assessed as needing personal care. Our intention is that, between October and April, councils will be able to delay the full assessment for free personal care of people who are already in the system and have been assessed as needing council care. These people will be able to have an assessment later and have any payments for free personal care backdated. Councils will be able to assess those people who are approaching social care for the first time—say, on discharge from hospital—in the normal fashion. Councils will, however, have to assess those people currently funding their own care and not currently known to the system when they make an approach from October. In that way, we are offering councils which feel that they will not be fully ready by October the opportunity to have a staged approach to implementation. They will be able to focus on meeting the needs of people who have funded their own care, safe in the knowledge that those within the system will not be disadvantaged if they are not ready to fully assess them from the date of the introduction of the scheme. I will be circulating draft regulations before Third Reading that will give effect to these flexibilities for councils. We are marrying two important objectives, recognising the practical difficulties that might be faced by some councils but ensuring that those with the highest care needs in our society receive the personal care that they need free of charge, as eloquently explained by my noble friend Lady Turner. In addition to the specific new provision, offering flexibility while committing to provide for those in the highest need, we have published a clear implementation plan in our response to the consultation. We will be working closely with local government representatives to support councils in implementing the new arrangements, including a new commitment from the Department of Health to provide some centrally funded training for councils. The government consultation response also sets out our proposal for the allocation formula to be used to distribute the specific extra grant of £210 million to cover the six-month period from October 2010, including an indicative allocation for each council. This gives local authorities greater clarity on the funding available, and a greater ability to plan for the implementation of this scheme. Extensive discussion has taken place on the Bill, and we have announced flexibilities around implementation to ensure that councils provide free personal care from October. I ask the noble Lord to withdraw this amendment and engage with us in discussions to ensure that we have the best support possible to councils to help them through this implementation. If he does not wish to do so, I ask the House to reject his amendment.