My Lords, it is my pleasure to move this amendment which relates to the training of all front-line workers. We took away the comments and ideas from the Minister in Committee and have brought back a much more modest amendment. It removes the public duty but does lay out a process whereby the commissioner is involved in assessing the training, according to the guidance the Government have published and will, I hope, improve. It also establishes that the commissioner should produce a report each year.
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I want to talk about two things, the first of which is guidance being the main instrument to ensure training. The Government are going to have to look at this to
make sure that the guidance actually does what it is meant to do. We know from the research that I mentioned in Committee that, for example, despite NICE guidance, there is considerable inconsistency across mental health trusts as to whether they ask such questions at all and have a policy of engaging with patients about any history of violence they may have. The main thing is that past guidance has not secured what I believe the Government or Parliament have expected in terms of a response to training, simply because the guidance is there.
Secondly, I know the commissioner is keen on this issue and I want to thank the Minister for engaging with it—we had a very useful meeting last week. In her letter to me, she said that relevant public authorities are dealt with through Clause 4, which already places a duty on the commissioner to publish an annual report. The Minister says in the letter, which is in the Library, that it is open to the commissioner to address matters relating to training and reporting in such annual reports. I am really pleased about that, but it has been pointed out to me that she can only do this in the way we know is necessary if she has sufficient resources. That is an issue for the Government. I hope the Minister can reassure us that there will be specific resources to make inquiries about training, in order to ensure that the commissioner knows where there is good practice and how it is being enacted, and that she is able to talk in her annual report about what is working well and how that needs to be developed across the piece.
As the Minister reminds me in the letter, public authorities are required to have regard to any guidance issued under Clause 73. I am simply saying to her that they have had that obligation in the past and not fulfilled it. If the commissioner is going to have the responsibility to say whether she thinks they are fulfilling these responsibilities, she is going to need the resources.
I hope that the commissioner will be able to identify good practice, including front-line workers from different services coming together, but also training that involves people with lived experience. For example, experts with lived experience have worked with DWP managers in Newcastle on recognising people with trauma who may, and often do, present at the local office. They work with them on how to ask the right questions and how to ensure they get the most appropriate interventions. These experts by experience are also training health workers, which has proved extremely successful.
There are very good examples around the different public services of things that have worked well, but it is incredibly patchy and thin and simply not adequate to reassure women that they will get the response they need when they turn up clearly troubled and silent, because they cannot talk about anything. They need the appropriate response, as we have said in discussing earlier amendments.
I am disappointed that the Government did not simply accept these amendments, because this theme would have made many of the other issues we are discussing much easier to deal with. However, I am grateful to the Minister and to Agenda for the work that has been put in on this issue. I look forward to the debate, and I beg to move.