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11.58 am
Mr. Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab): Like other Members in the House, I warmly welcome the Bill. I am delighted that it has cross-party support and pleased that, outside the House, support has already been given by a wide range of opinion across a range of organisations: British Gas, HSBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, which have all been mentioned. Significantly, Jane Hutt, the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Health and Social Services has also lent her support. I note what has been said about the Bill following the good example of what has happened in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
From my own experience, I am very conscious of the fact that my mother cared for her mother, who had senile dementia for many years. She looked after her mother with great care and attention, but, inevitably, a strain was put on her and the whole family. My father cared for my mother for a number of years and, in a sense, after losing my father the year before last, I have become a carer now, although—this point has been made—I seldom think of myself as filling that role.
I have to say, however, that what I am doing is nothing compared to what my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis) and his wife did for many years with their son Sam. For 16 years, they gave him love and a great deal of care. I know that from my contact with the family. It is entirely appropriate, therefore, that the Bill has become known as Sam's Bill. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for bringing forth the legislation and for consulting so widely with so many people. I very much hope that the Bill commands a consensus in the House and has the wholehearted support of the Government.
It is true that carers have rights and they get support, but often that is more apparent than real. For example, under current legislation, although carers have the right to an assessment, that assessment does not always happen. When it does, it often does not take account of carers' wider needs and considerations, such as their broader need with regard to employment, training and lifelong learning.
Therein lies the importance of the Bill, which will change things for the better in three important ways: first, carers will be given more, better and systematic information so that they can make well-informed choices about their lives; secondly, carers will be considered by social services departments and by the health service; and, thirdly, assistance will be given to carers so that they have more opportunities in leisure, education, employment and training.
It can be difficult to understand how such a Bill will materially affect and improve people's lives. I want to show by way of example what might happen if the Bill is enacted. I shall quote a hypothetical case study from Carers UK, which cites in a briefing, which I know all Members have received, the example of a parent with a disabled child. This is the carer speaking:
- "I tried to talk to"
- "about going back to work but they said my situation was just too difficult. They would not even discuss it with me. I was at the end of my tether after one particularly bad week and was close to losing it. Whilst I was sorting out yet another problem with our benefits at the Citizens' Advice Bureau I found a leaflet about the local college that had all sorts of courses for people like me—no confidence, nothing to offer! And they were on at times when I can sort out a bit of care for Danny"—
- "and they are fairly flexible so that hospital appointments and the like wouldn't get me thrown off the course. I really look forward to studying and I cannot believe how my life has changed . . . I feel I've got all sorts of opportunities and I feel like I'm worth something. Danny too, gets more out of me because I'm happier, and I feel like I have a life too, outside of my caring."
It is also worth pointing out the fact that the Bill is required for economic reasons across the country as well as for personal reasons affecting individuals. The TUC has said clearly that it will bring economic benefit to this country, citing the fact that some 80 per cent. of carers are of working age. That is a large number of people who are potential employees. However, it is also important to point out the fact that, although the Bill
presents economic opportunities, it will not impose extra costs for any authority, whether it is a local authority or indeed national Government.Many Members have spoken eloquently about the Bill. I have found this a particularly moving debate, and have been struck by how much common agreement exists already on both sides of the House. I hope that the Bill will receive the endorsement of the House today, that it will proceed to Committee, and that it will eventually reach the statute book. I sincerely hope that it will be implemented effectively, as Members have said, and that due credit will be given to my hon. Friend who has brought it forward as a private Member's Bill.
12.5 pm
Mr. Paul Goodman (Wycombe) (Con): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Mr. David), who followed me when I made my maiden speech and was very kind about it. He spoke from his experience today, and now I have a chance to follow him.
First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis) on introducing this Bill. He has great expertise and interest in the needs of carers, as we all know, and he set out the case for the Bill extremely methodically, thoroughly and comprehensively. I follow him in paying tribute to the work of Carers UK and carers organisations everywhere, including the South Bucks Carers Association, which is currently based in my constituency, which does so much to help the efforts of carers in Buckinghamshire, and is making special efforts to reach ethnic minority carers in Wycombe.
The Bill has the support of the official Opposition in principle. I want to make it clear to the hon. Member for Aberavon now that we will provide whatever support we can in Committee to help to get it on to the statute book. I say that unreservedly.
Before turning to the details of the Bill, I want to revisit briefly the background against which it is set, about which many Members have spoken knowledgeably.
The statistics relating to carers are awesome. Some 7 million people in the UK are looking after someone who is frail, sick or has a disability—some 10 per cent. of the population. More than 300,000 people become carers every year, and as the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) reminded us, three out of five people will become carers during their lifetime. According to Carers UK, the support that carers provide is worth £57 billion a year, which is more than we spent on health in 2001–02, as the hon. Member for Kingswood (Mr. Berry) pointed out. Apparently, carers save each taxpayer some £10,000 per head.
Those are necessarily dry, cold and abstract statistics, but behind the statistics is a moving human story, to which all Members who have spoken have alluded, which tells us a lot about the way we live now. Life spans are increasing, and as people live longer they are increasingly prone to disability. It is a striking thought for all of us that if we live long enough, we will probably gain a disability of one sort or another. At the other end of the life cycle, more children with disabilities are surviving for longer because of improved medical care. And families, who must deal and cope with those needs, for a whole complex series of reasons, are smaller and more fragile than they once were.
Several hon. Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning), have referred to the extraordinary strain that those responsibilities place on the well-being, as she put it, of carers. In particular, they place a strain on the larger number of carers who are women, and who may give up working in the labour market because they feel they have no choice but to do so. Later, they may feel that they no longer have the skills or the confidence to re-enter the labour market, whether when they want to do so or when they feel that they have no choice but to do so, for the sake of themselves and their families. If they do work in the labour market, they may feel that their employer does not always understand their needs.
Carers may feel bewildered about where to go for help and advice when a child with a disability arrives, or when a loved one becomes ill and frail. This has been a common theme in our discussion this morning. As the survey that my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) conducted in his constituency showed, carers may well not know their rights under law, and may feel bewildered about how to deal with the interlocking and multi-faceted problems that they face, particularly in regard to respite need.
Even the most dedicated carer is bound to feel in need of a break from time to time, when faced with the prospect of caring unceasingly for another person. The hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam suggested that the responsibilities that carers undertake out of love can grind a person down. Even the most dedicated carer can sometimes feel that that is happening. My own experience, as a constituency Member of Parliament, of talking to carers in my area has taught me that taking a break from caring is one of the most frequent desires that they express. The carer is often in need of care themselves.
It is no wonder, therefore, that according to the Carers UK report, 55 per cent. of carers reported significant health problems, while 43 per cent. reported that they had sought medical treatment for depression, stress or anxiety since becoming a carer. According to the "Missed Opportunities" report, only 32 per cent. of carers have been assessed by social services, and of those, 57 per cent. did not receive any extra support. Nearly 50 per cent. of carers had not been informed that they had the right to an assessment.
These interlocking problems are clearly illustrated by a single observation made to me by the South Bucks Carers Association. The point was first made in this debate by my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton, and it has been echoed round the Chamber throughout our discussion. It is that carers do not always like being called carers, because they feel that caring is something that comes as naturally to them as breathing. The hon. Member for Kingswood (Mr. Berry) was right to say that the formidable responsibilities that carers face cannot altogether be sloughed off on to the market. Nor can they be sloughed off on to the state or the rest of civil society. There has to be a partnership between the three, based on equal opportunity. That is where the Bill comes in.
The Bill seeks to provide solutions to some of the problems that have been aired in the debate, and the official Opposition support it in principle. However, we shall want to make a number of inquiries in Committee about the detail of the provisions. Those inquiries will be
based on the following argument. There is general agreement among all the main political parties that Britain is over-centralised; localisation is now the buzzword. The House would presumably agree, therefore, that new statutory or regulatory duties to be placed on local authorities or other bodies should not be undertaken without good reason. It is therefore important to ask, when examining the Bill on Second Reading, whether the additional duties that it seeks to place on local authorities and other bodies are necessary.Clause 2, for example, seeks to ensure that provision for informing carers is written into the community strategies drawn up jointly by local authorities and health authorities. Some people might argue that there would be a danger, if the Bill were passed, of successive good intentions being written into community strategies to a point at which those strategies became overloaded or overburdened by the requirements of different sections of the community, and thus became unworkable. The official Opposition are not persuaded by that argument, because it seems reasonable to judge each potential addition to a community strategy on a case-by-case basis. The hon. Member for Aberavon made a good case for that this morning. We shall be interested to hear whether the Minister agrees with that assessment.
In regard to clauses 1, 3, 4 and 5, Carers UK has comprehensively set out the argument that
- "there would also be some longer term savings through better health of carers, more sustained employment, and return to work for some carers."
Perhaps the Minister could provide us with any information he has about the impact in cost and other terms of the duty that local authorities already have in Scotland and Northern Ireland to notify carers of their right to an assessment. I think the hon. Member for Aberavon said that he had been told by the Scottish Executive that there were effectively no extra costs.
I will not follow the path trodden by the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Hywel Williams). He spoke of LACs and WOCs, bodies altogether outside my experience. I wondered whether in Scotland there might be such bodies as SOCs—but I will not go further down that path, Mr. Deputy Speaker, as it is one that you would not encourage me to tread.
We welcome the Bill unreservedly, and look forward to examining it closely in Committee with a view to supporting it. We believe that it offers the prospect of improvement in the lives both of carers and of those for whom they care, and of their being given the equality of opportunity that it seeks to confer.
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