Independent Commission on Adult Social Care

Lord Laming Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

What the noble Baroness describes—people getting the runaround—is, of course, unacceptable, and we have discussed this a number of times. I would be pleased to take back her suggestion to the Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, for what it is worth, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, on her initial findings, which illustrate all too well how serious the situation is. The problem will be made worse by things such as, as the Minister just reported, the NHS workforce plan that will be produced in the near future. That is welcome as far as it goes, but it illustrates the separation between NHS services and local authority services. The reality is that there are very few people using adult social care services who are not simultaneously looking to the health service for their continuous needs. Will we continue to do everything possible to bridge the gap between the two services?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Yes, indeed. We have three core foundations in place in our government objectives for adult social care, one of which is—to the point made by the noble Lord—strengthening the join-up between health services and social care services, because people need to experience more integrated, person-centred care. I am glad that the noble Lord welcomes the immediate actions, set out by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, that the Government must take on adult safeguarding, dementia and motor neurone disease. We are not wasting any time in taking those recommendations forward.