Personal Care at Home Bill

My Lords, with this amendment I return us briefly to an issue I raised in Committee and one which the Minister has since been kind enough to talk to me about privately. I refer to the fact that this Bill and its implementing regulations look likely, if nothing is done, to sideline the needs of deafblind people. Perhaps I may remind the House why this is such a concern. To be both deaf and blind is surely one of the cruellest of disabilities. It is impossible for any deafblind person to live a normal life without receiving some measure of care, and for the worst afflicted it would be difficult to describe their level of need as anything other than critical. Indeed, under the current FACS guidance, deafblind people are frequently assessed as having a critical need under the category which relates to involvement in family and wider community life. If the care needs of deafblind people are not addressed, they are at extreme risk of having to go into residential care. The problem is that, deserving of help as these individuals may be, the people whom this Bill is designed to benefit are not the deafblind but rather the frail elderly or those younger people who are severely physically disabled. The kind of personal care which the frail elderly typically require—dressing, help with toileting and bathing, assistance with eating and so on—is often not relevant to a deafblind person whose needs centre above all on help with communication and the whole business of interacting with the outside world. The draft regulations published by the department effectively narrow the definition of personal care so as to exclude this kind of personal care. In Committee, I pointed out what I felt was the unreasonableness of this narrow definition of personal care, bearing in mind the vulnerability and acuity of need of the deafblind. I invited the Minister to take time to think about this, which I know she has done, having been good enough to see me together with representatives of Sense a few days ago. I have therefore tabled this amendment as a means of asking her whether on reflection she believes that anything can be done to ensure that those deafblind people who have the most critical care needs and who are at greatest risk of requiring residential care if their needs are not met can, after all, qualify for free care and support. I beg to move.