Health and Social Care Bill

Baroness Emerton Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cumberlege]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Harris, is right that we have already had this debate much earlier in the progress of the Bill, when we discussed the relationship between the Care Quality Commission and HealthWatch England. The debate took place on 22 November and I spoke in cols. 977-79, and your Lordships will be very grateful to hear that I am not going to go through it again.

There are just one or two things that I want to say. The amendments that I tabled at that time were very similar to some of those that have been tabled today. However, I want to make it plain that I am not, in principle, in favour of making Healthwatch England totally independent. I think there are enormous advantages in having a very close relationship with the Care Quality Commission. As I have said, I am not going to go into the reasons why at this time.

The first amendment that I have tabled provides:

“The majority of the members of the Healthwatch England committee shall not be members of the Commission”.

I think that is very important, in order to give them opportunities to criticise the CQC. The second amendment provides:

“The provision that must be made by virtue of sub-paragraph (1A) includes provision as to—

(a) the majority membership of Healthwatch England committee being elected from representatives of Local Healthwatch organisations, and

(b) the manner in which those representatives are elected, the term which they must serve and the role that they must fulfil”.

That has been very well argued again this afternoon.

Both the independence and the influence of Healthwatch England can be secured, providing that the right sequence of accountability is in place. I see this as follows: Healthwatch England must have a majority membership made of elected people from local healthwatches, and it must be accountable for the way it influences the CQC by local healthwatches across the country. The CQC must be accountable for the way in which it responds to HealthWatch England, and local healthwatches must be protected from interference and bias from local authorities. I will say more about that in the next group.

I want to take up the very good points about history made by the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley. The question of whether Healthwatch England should be a stand-alone organisation is actually answered in history. Fourteen years ago, the then Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales published Hungry in Hospital?. This highlighted the failure to feed elderly patients in hospital separately. Just a few weeks ago, exactly the same problem was highlighted in the dignity and nutrition programme report from the CQC. We know it is still a problem but have failed as a nation to sort it out. I wonder if ACHCEW had been part of the regulator, whether the CHCs could have ensured that the matter was addressed by the regulator and then monitored whether it was or not. Simply making an organisation stand-alone does not give it influence; indeed, it can distract it into supporting its own infrastructure, leaving less capacity for getting on with the job. Its functions, membership and accountability are what make it independent, and not, necessarily, its stand-alone status.

[Baroness Emerton]

My Lords, my name is not under any of the amendments, but I want to say briefly how much I support what has been said by the noble Lords, Lord Warner and Lord Harris, and the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley.

Following on from the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, I think that, while Healthwatch will have some opportunity to look at the CQC, it will usually look at the negative side. However, I thought HealthWatch was going to be a body that might be able to influence future policy. Certainly, when I had the experience of sitting on a CHC board, it was able to contribute to the future policy of a new development. I feel we are looking very much at the negative, rather than the positive and the contribution that can be made by members of HealthWatch, possibly to future national policies.

Thinking back to the changes that took place in mental health and learning disabilities, I think that it would have been very valuable to have had the contribution of the HealthWatch group of people. We did not have it at that stage. Somehow we need to weave into this the positive side of policy-making and strategy that HealthWatch can often contribute in a very positive way. While HealthWatch will have a contribution to make in looking at the negative side—which usually means the critical side in relation to the CQC—I do not think that that should be its sole role. I hope the Government will take that away and perhaps feed it in.