Care Workers: Foreign Worker Visas

Debate between Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie and Baroness Merron

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and declare my interest as chief executive of Cerebral Palsy Scotland.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are reducing reliance on international recruitment in adult social care and working to improve domestic recruitment and retention. In England, we are introducing the first fair pay agreement for adult social care, implementing the first universal career structure and providing £12 million this year for staff to complete training and qualifications. These changes will help attract staff to the sector, and provide proper recognition and opportunities for them to build their careers.

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

I thank the Minister for her Answer and apologise if it feels like Groundhog Day, because I know she answered a very similar Question from the noble Lord, Lord Wood, on Monday. As the Minister well knows, solving the recruitment and retention crisis in this sector is long term, will take cross-party work and has many regional variables. In her Answer, she referred to what the Government are able to do in England, but in Scotland, where at the moment a quarter of rural and island carers come from outside the UK, we have a real issue. One provider said to me, “It’s not just about money. Despite paying above-average wages, we haven’t interviewed a British person for over three and half years”. In many rural and remote areas, agency staff are both unaffordable and unavailable. Will the Minister feed back to her colleagues in the Home Office that any cliff edge or one-size-fits-all approach that fails to take into consideration regional challenges threatens to devastate an already fragile service?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

First, I pay tribute to the noble Baroness for her leadership of Cerebral Palsy Scotland. As I know she is aware, adult social care is devolved, which is why I made reference to England only. I am very happy to raise the points the noble Baroness made with the Foreign Office—sorry, with the Home Office.

NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service

Debate between Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie and Baroness Merron

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

There is a role for charitable organisations. One example is hospices. As I have been told many times in this Chamber, as well as outside it, many hospices and other charities, including air ambulances, welcome and relish the freedom they have as charities and do not want government funding or intervention. Of course, we very much respect and appreciate the role that the Air Ambulance Service plays. My own brother was saved some 10 years ago, so I feel very connected to this point. He is grateful, as am I.

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

My Lords, I hear what the Minister says—that this is about a new scheme that will encourage volunteers within the NHS. However, sadly, data shows that instances of volunteering are declining across this country. Does the Minister know what measures will be put in place to ensure that all the volunteers who are currently on the scheme that is going to be closed are supported into whatever the requirements are in the new scheme? Having to go through DBS checks again, reapplying or anything like that might just put barriers in the way of supporting people who are already valued into the new scheme.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I understand that point. It is important to retain and develop people’s interest and commitment. The new portal will be a one-stop shop and will be much better at achieving what the noble Baroness and I seek. I know, having heard about it already, that it has functionality that is not there now. I cannot currently put in my postcode and find out what volunteering opportunities there are, which seems ever so basic—we do that on many other fronts. The new portal will allow that. In other words, the potential volunteers will find it much more accessible and will be matched better. The standards of recruitment will be higher and we will retain people. The noble Baroness makes a very good point—it is why NHSE has written to everybody on the old functionality.

National Carers Strategy

Debate between Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie and Baroness Merron

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chief executive of Cerebral Palsy Scotland. Disabled adults of working age tell me that one of the reasons they have to fall back on family and unpaid carers is the dire shortage of availability of good PAs to help them work and live. Can the Minister confirm that the national carers strategy will look at access to PAs for working-age adults?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I do have to say to the noble Baroness that I have not committed to a national carers strategy. However, in our joined-up approach, we will certainly be looking at what is needed. That will be very much part of our considerations on the workforce strategy, which Minister Karin Smyth will be leading on. It is crucial to the delivery of services.

Palliative and End-of-life Care: Funding

Debate between Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie and Baroness Merron

Wednesday 4th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right, and I certainly agree with the points she has made. Those who care for their loved ones are absolutely crucial to ensuring that the right care is provided in the right place and the right way for that person. Everybody is individual, and we want a society where everybody receives the right kind of care at the end of their life. That should be a time of dignity, and we want to provide that.

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

My Lords, people with neurological conditions face many barriers to accessing palliative care, even though it could do them a huge amount of good. The answers to this are better identification of individual needs and better collaboration between palliative and neurological services. Can the Minister assure me that she will look at this? There is a great inequity in access to palliative care. I declare my interest as a chair of the Scottish Government’s neurological advisory committee.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is quite right to raise this, and I can give her that assurance. She raises the point about identification of people with specific needs. I am interested to see that there are some very good examples of local good practice—for example, in Dorset, where they have proactively gone out to identify who needs palliative and end-of-life care. By so doing, they have raised the percentage of the local population who should be receiving it. That is a model we will want to look at. With regard to those who have particular needs, as the noble Baroness describes, I think that model will be helpful too.