Social Care

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

It will come as no surprise to the noble Baroness that I cannot give her the detail on that question, but I will be very happy to get back to her with an update on where we have got to. Obviously, the whole area of digitalisation is another of the pillars in moving the health service forward. So many people collect data but do not use it. We are very good at harvesting it but not actually analysing it and working out how we can use it to best effect. But it is one of the commitments.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, what discussions are being held with private sector care companies to require them, in exchange for the often considerable amount of money they receive from the public purse, to work with education institutions to provide high-quality training for social care staff in their local area?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an important point. If we are moving to a neighbourhood health service, we need to engage with local social care providers and make sure that they are part of the mix. This is where the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, is starting. She is bringing everyone together to talk about how to deliver this. We need to make sure that our training institutions are engaged and that everyone who can contribute is around the table to move things forward.