My Lords, let there be no doubt at all that in the Government’s view high quality, accessible information is vital if we are to realise the aims set out in this Bill. We heard some excellent arguments in Committee about financial advice, advocacy, accessibility and signposting to other sources of information and advice. I hope that the amendments we are tabling today, and the commitments that we can give about our work with the sector on statutory guidance, will persuade noble Lords that we have listened to what we heard in Committee and have acted accordingly.
The noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, has tabled two amendments, Amendments 13 and 18, which state that local authorities should facilitate access to information and advice and that they should be accessible to those who would benefit. Amendment 21, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, proposes regulation-making powers which specify when social workers should provide information in complex cases. Following consultation, we made clear that information and advice must be accessible to those who have a need for them in relation to care and support. It says exactly that in Clause 4(4). Local authorities will have to meet the information needs of all groups, including those who often find it most difficult to access information, such as those with sensory impairments, people from BME backgrounds, people who are socially isolated or who have complex conditions. We are absolutely clear about that.
“Accessible and proportionate”—the words that we use in the Bill—also mean ensuring that information and advice are available in the right format, in the right places and at the right time. A vital aspect of this is making them available face to face and one to one, by phone, through leaflets and posters as well as online. When appropriate and most effective, that advice should be given directly by a qualified social worker. There will be other occasions when information and advice are best and most appropriately provided by others. We are working with all interested parties on what this means in practice and on translating this into the statutory guidance.
Amendment 18, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, seeks to ensure that information should be accessible and proportionate to those who would benefit. We consider this amendment to be unnecessary. The duty to provide information and advice applies to a local authority’s whole population—including those who would benefit from that. Each local authority will need to tailor the service to its population’s needs. I can confirm to the noble Baroness that the detail about how to do this will be covered in statutory guidance, and we are working with stakeholders, including carers and user groups, to make sure that we get this right.
The Government have also listened carefully to concerns expressed about the provision of information and advice on financial matters. We have in response tabled Amendments 16 and 17, which seek to make clearer the active role that local authorities have. Amendment 16 requires local authorities to have regard to the importance of identifying individuals who would be likely to benefit from financial advice. This encourages a more active role for local authorities to consider whether people would benefit from financial advice. Amendment 17 means that local authorities must seek to ensure that adults understand how to access information and advice on the range of financial options available to them.
There are various options for people who could benefit from financial advice relating to care and support, both regulated and non-regulated. Our amendments highlight the importance of ensuring that people understand how to access the variety of advice available independently from local authorities. They mean that local authorities must seek to ensure
that adults understand how to access the different financial advice available to them, thereby supporting people to make informed choices.
A particular point that I want to bring out here is that the Government do not believe it would be appropriate to require local authorities to make direct referrals. For the most part, local authorities do not possess the necessary expertise, and there is a risk that a referral leading to poor advice could bring a significant burden of accountability on to the local authority. We will work closely with stakeholders as we produce the statutory guidance to understand how different types of financial advice, including regulated financial advice, might be of benefit for people in different situations, as well as the active role of local authorities within this.
Amendments 14 and 19 seek to simplify and clarify Clause 4 and to respond to specific concerns raised in discussion in Committee. Amendment 14 simply re-words Clause 4(2)(d) in a more concise and understandable way. This makes the clear and unambiguous statement that the information and advice service must cover how a person can access independent financial advice on matters relevant to the meeting of needs for care and support. Amendment 19 responds to concerns raised about the potential confusion, particularly in the financial services industry, over the term “independent financial advice”. The amendment clarifies that the term means financial advice independent of the local authority.
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I turn to the amendment proposed by my noble friend Lady Barker about the importance of access to independent advocacy. The Bill requires local authorities to involve adults in the assessment, care-planning and review processes. Most people will be able to carry out this involvement on their own and many others will have family or friends who are able to represent their views. However, in the light of what we have heard from noble Lords and other stakeholders, the Government accept that some people may require independent assistance to make this involvement a reality, which is why we are bringing forward Amendments 118 and 119. These are very similar to the amendments in the name of my noble friend Lady Barker. I shall address in a moment the questions that she put to me.
Following close work with the sector, we agree that the people who need this assistance most are those who have substantial difficulty in understanding, retaining, using or weighing the necessary information to allow this involvement, as well as those who have difficulty in communicating their wishes and feelings. For these people, our amendment states that local authorities would be under a duty to provide an independent advocate if there was no appropriate person to represent the individual who was not also involved in that person’s care or treatment. This would usually be a friend or family member. The Government’s amendments go further by proposing a similar duty to provide independent advocates to facilitate people’s involvement in the safeguarding processes. We consider it vital that people are at the heart of these processes, rather than having these processes done to them.
My noble friend asked about the term “involve”. The change in the duty to involve a person as opposed to consulting them in the assessment, care-planning and review processes was made as a result of public consultation. It represents a significant shift by changing the emphasis on the process from being one that is led by the local authority to one carried out jointly with the individual. In practice, this means that people will need to be actively involved throughout the process, meaning that local authorities take their views into account rather than being able to perform tick-box assessment exercises, which is sometimes the accusation now. This fits with our whole approach to reforming care and support, shifting from a paternalistic view and a system where the authorities know best to a system that is driven around people and their individual preferences.
My noble friend also asked about the right of access. We know that there have sometimes been issues around independent advocates being unable to access a person, resulting in their being unable to perform their role properly. Proposed subsection (2) of government Amendment 118 requires an advocate to be made available to the individual, and the duty of co-operation in Clause 6 requires relevant partners of a local authority to co-operate in such matters. The regulation-making power at proposed subsection (7)(d) in Amendment 118 allows us to make provision as to the manner in which independent advocates are to perform their functions. This will allow the Government to specify that advocates will need to see the individuals, among other things. We have not yet made decisions about the specific content of these regulations, as we will work collaboratively with all interested stakeholders to produce them.
The regulation-making power will allow us to specify the manner in which independent advocates will carry out their role. There are two main ways of quality-assuring the work of advocates, which was another issue raised by my noble friend. The first is through the commissioning process, whereby local authorities set out what they expect of the advocacy service in terms of quantity and quality and monitor it through performance indicators and regular meetings. Secondly, the department has also funded a sector-specific quality assurance framework, whereby organisations start by carrying out a self-assessment and then are visited by assessors, who examine and report on the quality of the work. This is called the quality performance mark, and many commissioners require it.
My noble friend asked about the possibility of a general provision to allow for future circumstances where advocacy is appropriate. I can tell her that the regulation-making powers in proposed subsection (7)(c) of Amendment 118 allow us to do that. Statutory guidance will go into more detail about when advocacy would be appropriate.
I turn to the question posed by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, about how we will monitor effectiveness and what recourse individuals have. First, by putting care and support law into a single statute, we are ensuring that local authorities are clear about their care and support obligations. As public bodies, they are obliged to comply with these legal obligations, and we can rightly assume that they will do so. In some circumstances, an individual bringing legal proceedings
against a local authority may be able to argue that an authority’s failure to comply with such duties has adversely affected them, and hence a failure to comply could be subject to a legal challenge. We will, however, be coming on to debate the role of the CQC in this context, and I can perhaps elaborate further on our thoughts on the role of the CQC at that point.
I hope that by bringing forward these amendments we are showing that we have listened carefully to the many representations we have heard on the issue of advocacy and are demonstrating the Government’s commitment to improving outcomes for some of the most vulnerable people using care and support. I hope that they will receive the support of the House. Further, I trust that noble Lords will note that we have listened carefully about the importance of financial advice and will support the amendments that we are proposing, which encourage a more active role for local authorities. Finally, I hope that noble Lords are persuaded about how important we believe the statutory guidance on information and advice to be, in which we are committed to addressing in detail important issues, such as integration with areas such as health and housing and making information accessible to all.