Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 17:"Page 1, line 10, at end insert ““indirect and direct””" The noble Lord said: This amendment is very much linked to Amendment No. 80, which will be moved by the noble Lord, Lord Prys-Davies. I am sure that we will debate it fully at that point. The intention in the amendments is to safeguard older people when there is any suspicion that discrimination is happening. I hope that the Minister can explain to us exactly what he believes constitutes discrimination. Is it personal discrimination in a community situation? We have complaints of people in hospital being ignored or neglected and of people suffering because they are unable to feed themselves. In some places cleanliness is not paramount. Such matters could be included as discrimination. We can ensure that older folk as a community do not suffer age discrimination. As the Minister said, legislation has been enacted to deal with the matter. We therefore ask to distinguish direct discrimination from indirect. Amendment No. 18 would ensure the,"““provision of training towards good practice””." As part of my lifelong work, I have visited nursing homes many times a week. Sometimes the staff are absolutely first class, with the nurses having been trained in the national health service, but sometimes staff are untrained. I was in one nursing home day room where a carer actually dropped a patient. It is essential to have the highest standard of training to ensure that that sort of thing does not happen. This is not just a physical thing; it is also a question of having empathy and sympathy with the patients. So many people simply want a sympathetic ear. People employed in these homes should be able to be the sort of friend older people need, especially lonely older people who may have lost all their family. I do not know whether it is possible to train a person to have a good bedside manner, but we could try. The best possible training should be provided to ensure that the folk receiving the care do so in a complete way. I beg to move.