22/05/06 - Speech by Ivan Lewis MP, The New Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Services

I think it’s important in any job that you give people an understanding of where you come from. And it’s important to understand that to me care services is not just a job – it was my life before I came into politics.

At the age of 14, I started working in the voluntary sector with people with learning disabilities. At 16, I left formal education to work in this area fulltime. Myself and like-minded friends set up a charity to do this work. We secured funding and I was lucky enough to get the one paid job. We developed it from scratch.

After that, I went to work for a wider client group with the Manchester Jewish Federation. I became Chief Executive and was there until 1997.

In the same period, I became a council member and took on the role of Chair of Social Services in Bury. It was a difficult time with funding cuts and an important learning experience.

So I have a background in the voluntary sector and I have sat on the other side of the table in a statutory organisation. Having the care services brief is like coming home.

I don’t think the issues are any different know than when I started in 1985 or when I moved into politics in 1997. Progress has been made since 1997, but it’s not rocket science to see some issues remain.

There has been speculation when you look at the other junior ministers in the Department of Health that they are Ministers for State and that social care is not valued. I think it is not the title that you hold but the difference that you make which is important.

We who are passionate about social care need to stand up for ourselves. Social care is at the centre of the solution.

I had the adult skills brief at DfES. The perception was that DfES was all about schools. I put skills on the agenda and there is a similar challenge in the Department of Health. I need to put social care at the heart of the department. My job is to champion the cause of social care.

What of the White Paper itself. Well, Our health, our care, our say presents a compelling vision for the future.

A vision that puts people in control of their own care. Whether it is through direct payments and individual budgets in social care or increased choice in health.

It’s a vision that helps people stay healthy and well. By focusing on prevention, helping people to be active and independent, living the fullest life that they can.

It’s a vision that is about bringing services to people. In their local community, in their school and, increasingly, in their own home.

And, crucially, a vision that has social care, health and other services coming together to meet people’s needs. Integration that will help to stop people falling down the gaps between services.

I want to say something here about partnership. I define partnership as the suppression of mutual loathing in the mutual pursuit of government funding.

People on the frontline can get frustrated. All too often excuses are made for not working in partnership. In some cases statutory organisations treat voluntary organisations as junior partners. We must avoid the same old tired solutions. Let’s get this right.

My challenge is not to develop more and more policy. We have the White Paper. Now we need to make it happen. Delivery.

I see my job as making sure that they happen.

Now I know that implementing the White Paper is a challenge, particularly for the NHS given the changes and other pressures it is experiencing.

But my message today is that the White Paper is part of the solution to these pressures.

It is part of the solution, because many of the policies contained within it can lead to a more sustainable future for health and social care. Helping people adopt healthy lifestyles can reduce the prevalence of long term conditions. Spending a few pounds adapting homes for older people to prevent falls and accidents can save thousands of pounds in hospital care and support after discharge. Making greater use of technology can help people self-care and decrease their dependence on professionals.

We must not let the here and now obscure how we need to change for the longer term. If we do, we abdicate our responsibility in terms of future generations.

But we also throw away the opportunity for reform. Greater co-terminosity than ever before between Primary Care Trusts and local authorities will help the integration that is so central to the White Paper. This restructuring is absolutely right.

Today I am pleased to be able to give greater clarity on one of those new roles, as we are publishing the Director of Adult Social Services guidance.

There is statutory guidance that gives the Director of Adult Social Services role a legal footing. Statutory guidance that we clearly heard was necessary during the Independence, Wellbeing and Choice consultation.

And there is accompanying best practice guidance, which recognises that local authorities will develop the role to meet their own local circumstances, but provides tools and tips to help that development.

The aim of this is to ensure that there is a clear local leader for adult social services. A leader who will be helping the most vulnerable people in society get the support they need.

That person will need to work closely with many partners. Partners from the voluntary and commercial sectors who provide services. Partners from other public services such as health, transport and housing. And, of course, users and carers.

I’m going to end by saying we are at an exciting moment. We do need to assert the centrality of social care.

We are moving away from a rigid one-size fits all approach. We require radical and different ways of acting, such as thinking about direct payments. No one can argue against it. But we need to think how we make it work when resources are tied up in existing provision. There’s no easy answer to that and we need to think through these issues together.

I’d like to end by saying I’ve been a Minister or five years. Four years at DfES delivering things. In my last year at the Treasury I spent time telling people they can’t deliver things.

What I’ve learnt is that you cannot deliver change from Whitehall. We can put the framework in place but we are reliant on the people in the frontline. I will be championing your cause in Whitehall, but I will also be challenging you to do your best out at the frontline.

We must have a relationship of trust and challenge. I will be challenging services to get better.

Thank you very much for listening.


Source : DOH